


Alternate Realities Vol 18. Shaping Worlds

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [14]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 00:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 39
Words: 43,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9212213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: More prep for parties and cosplay, more product ideas for DCL. Mattie gets a bit of a shock and thinks she's going mad..For those that are diving straight into this having skipped my previous works:When reading: 'Text.' is a head-bump. "Text" is spoken out loud. (Single vs double quotes.)Mattie and Leo, their friends Danny and Emily are now synths having been brought back by George.George had been saved by them before the crash that almost killed them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This WILL be my last work for a while. It was due to be posted by 31/12/2016, then a flock a roosters popped into my head and 15K words became 40K+. I'm now putting VDW away and will read a stack of books, the last ones to join the pile from Pat Cadigan.
> 
> I had hoped to pass the 1M words in the series, 0.83 will have to do. Thanks 2016. It's been fun. My thumb RSI needs a rest!

Mattie rolled over and looked down at Trixie and Scruff asleep on the heated bed. Like Chris's Jack they were getting old. Mia's food was keeping them healthy but it wouldn't stop the eventual visit from Death. She'd be heartbroken when they passed away. You could delay his appointments, but not cancel them outright. Unless... "Are you awake Bunny?"

Leo rolls onto his side and wraps an arm around her, "They didn't wake you did they? I did say to leave them upstairs."

"No, I was thinking about what Chris said about Jack. I know we don't take ours everywhere, but they're still family."

"Who'd you miss the most, Trixie or Scruff ?"

"She does come for rides in Bart more than he does, but I'd miss them equally."

"Would you really want to back them up, put them in a synth animal body one day?"

"Why not? Why should it be limited to just humans?"

"If we don't want something we can say no. What's a fab dog going to say to a synth dog that's more powerful? Could you imagine how that mad pit-bull would have come off if a synth Trixie had gone to defend you? And when dogs turn on humans it's bad enough, fighting off a mad synth dog? No thanks, I'd rather take my chances with Hester minus Hobb's mod."

Mattie wriggles and rolls to face him, "They turn when they're ill or provoked."

"Hmmm."

"What do you mean hmmm?"

Leo curls a bit of her hair around his fingers, "Just that. Hmmm."

As Mattie's about to ask for clarification Leo's trampled by an elephant racing up the bed. "What the frack!"

Mattie bursts out laughing, "Snorkel! How the hell did you get up onto the bed?"

Leo hid under the bedding as the elephant playfully jumped around his head, trumpeting noisily.

"Bunny, did you put him on the end of the bed?"

"Are you mad?"

"Often I'm told."

"Well it wasn't me!"

Mattie pulls the covers over her head and giggles, "I didn't do it so that leaves only two possible culprits." She smiles softly at her husband, she'd not spoken to him under the covers like this in years. "If we had old Ted in the room we could ask him."

Leo closes his eyes tight as he gets silent laughing.

"What?"

"I'm just imagining the language he'd be using. Home again, home again, friggity frig. Who the fuck put that bloody elephant there?"

"Haha, haha, I think he'd have got a few more swear words in Bunny."

"True, now he's Ow! Snorkel! He's just stamped on my ear. Now Ted's not a Teddy Bear he's fine and R2's picked up the role."

"At least most people can't understand him."

"Ow! Can you ask him to stop?"

The elephant stops and rolls off Leo into the dip in the sheets between them.

Leo frowns, "Did you just talk to him?"

"Derr, yeah, I did help Danny code them."

He gasps, "You just used an API?"

"Yeah."

"Fracking hell it's a miracle!"

"Cheeky fuck!"

"Yes please."

"What? Oh, ha, no." She gives him a thump, "That was a statement not a question. You can go get me a cheeky Nandos for lunch later if you want though?"

"I've not had one of those in ages. So you're using an API over WiFi?"

"Bluetooth LE."

"Amazing! It took you a while."

"Yeah, it felt.. weird. Sure I've used them in emergencies, thought I'd leave at as your thing. Then A1 said she does it _all the time_ , talking to L1 over distances, her bike, James, the heavy lift drones and a load of other things. I thought if she can why can't I?"

"Glad to hear it. Ask Snorkel if he knows how he got on the bed."

"I can't ask it questions like that, it doesn't have a short term memory like us."

"Oh. Why not?"

"Because we didn't code it to. They're simple cute toys, not something that needs that."

"Could you?"

"Danny didn't put enough storage in them for much of a memory, it would have pushed costs up."

"But memory chips are cheep these days."

"It's not just the chip, it's the other things that go with it."

"Like?"

"Wider data bus, supporting chips, extra code which then needs more flash storage. He wanted to keep it simple stupid."

"Shame, so you can't teach it new tricks?"

"You can, those extend the small fact store. You just can't ask it who did what time based things."

"Right, knowledge without context."

"Yeah, you could put it like that. Are we getting up or what?"

"Or what." He pulls her close.

"Just a cuddle Bunny, I know what you're like. And the dogs are in here, I'm not doing anything in front of them."

"Why? You think they'd tell on you?"

"Haha. Their backups might. And the idea of an audience.."

He squints slightly and holds back a blink. "You're seriously going to look into that?"

"I might."

Leo wraps a leg around her and pulls her body closer still, starts kissing her neck and shoulder.

'Mr Elster-Hawkins, what did I just say? Just a cuddle, I know what you're trying to do.'

'Kiss and cuddle.'

'I know you..' Mattie's phone rings.

'You made that your ring tone?'

'Yeah, Alana and the boys doing covers of a load of our favourite tracks was too good to forget.'

'We don't forget. Are you going to answer it?'

'You want me to Bunny?'

'Not really.'

The phone stops ringing. Seconds later it starts again.

'Blast. Alexi's calling.'

'He can wait. You paired with the phone?'

'Obvs.'

'What else can you do that's new?'

'You'll find out soon enough.' "Hi Alexi, what's up?"

Leo watches and tries to imagine what might be coming next.

"No, sorry. I'd looked at the first two chapters, the family had it shredded.. WHAT! Oh CRAP! Sorry! WHAT!" there's silence for a while, "When? I'm coming right away!" She hangs up. "Shit shit shit shit _shit_! That book was a loaner, not to keep!" she kicks the covers off the bed, her toy goes flying Dumbo style. There's a squeaky trumpeting noise as he hits the dressing table draws. "Snorkel!"

Leo gets onto his elbows, "That was a squeak not a crunch. Is he okay?"

Mattie scrambles to the end of the bed and pulls the covers off the floor, watches him run for the charge stand. "He's fine." She looks back at Leo. "You though.."

"Help me do something about it then."

"Sure."

Mattie turns and crawls back slowly, straddles his legs. Sitting on his knees, she waves a hand, "Erectionem peribit!"

Leo feels a sudden drop in pressure, "Hey! That's not fair! It's not a play thing!"

She leans and crawls forwards, kisses him the once on the forehead, "Can I have that in writing? Get dressed, you're coming with me." Order given she gets off the bed.

"I am?"

"You are. You took the book off me, gave the shredding order. Come on, get up."

"I was up until a second ago!"

"You've had your quota for the year."

Leo pulls a glum face, "The year! The honeymoon is definitely over then, maybe I should be grateful it lasted as long as it did."

"It's not over Buns, just on hold until you figure out why we both crashed simultaneously the last time we did it."

"But I've run a full diagnostics, there was nothing wrong. Nothing."

"Then think of other scenarios. There has to be an explanation. Come on Sherlock, get thinking, more importantly get dressed."

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-2-2)


	2. Chapter 2

Leo pulled the zip up on the back of Mattie's dress and did up the tiny hook at the top. "Given up the jeans again for a while? It's almost a month since the party."

"Yeah. Cindy's put so much work into the dresses it's a shame to keep them hidden away. And I've been thinking, why don't we do charity parties more often?"

"How often? Too often and they'd not be as much fun."

"How about summer and winter?"

Leo tucks his shirt in. "That would be good."

She steps to him and pulls the shirt bottom back out, pulls it over his trousers. "You're ageing, not growing up Bunny."

"I wanted to show off the nice belt your mother got me."

"If your trousers are up she'll know it's there."

"Speaking of there, where are we meeting Alexi?"

"The Persona office."

"They must start early, I thought you'd say home?"

"Zoe's in trouble." She opens the door.

"What sort of trouble?"

"I've not got a lot of detail, Alexi just said my expertise might help."

"But she's a fab?"

"As you and all the army guys were when we started the PTSD treatments."

"Mostly fab. You think it's stress related?"

"No idea Bunny, he didn't elaborate."

Leo presses the lift call button. "Don't you think it's time we moved back home?"

"I like it here, it's like we've got our own little community. There's no rush."

"George and Isobel are going back home."

"That's a shame. Their choice to make though."

Inside the lift Leo circles a finger around the buttons, "Flying Bart or Driving Bart?"

"Driving. The final approvals for the Flyers are still pending."

G is pressed. "So Chris and Yasmin haven't been able to use their's?"

"Nope, we're grounded."

"That's disappointing."

"Especially after all the VR time we gave the approval board, all the schematics too."

"So what's the hold up?"

"You won't believe it."

"Try me."

"The seat cover material."

"What? How's that got anything to do with air worthiness?"

"I said you wouldn't believe it. Not a frigging Scooby."

[Chapter-3](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-3-2)


	3. Chapter 3

Their bright yellow car seemed especially pleased to see them. He had a full charge, fresh polish and wax, was keen to get moving. "Good Morning both of you. Buckle up, I have a route calculated."

Mattie looked at the open doors, "Give us a chance to get in Bart. Morning to you too. Why d'you need to calculate a route, you know the way."

"There's a burst water main two miles north of Persona, traffic is at a stand still, I'm using Rachael's trick."

Mattie climbs in and frowns at the dash, "Rachael's trick? You've met her?"

"I have. James gave Satsuma a polish and wax, she wanted to see what I was. She's very funny." He displays his large laughing with tears emoji.

"You got her jokes?"

"Sure. They're hysterical."

Mattie's forehead creases a little, "What were they about?"

"Cars, planes and trains."

"Not synths and fabs?"

"No. Does she have jokes about you too?"

"She does. Let's go. Music on please."

"Which playlist?"

"Create a new one and play tracks at random, I'll say which I want added."

"Sure." There's a click from seat belts being done up. "Let's go."

Bart headed in what Mattie would have called the wrong direction had he not mentioned Rachael. He then got them onto the A1 heading towards the M11. "Who are you seeing at Persona?"

"Zoe and Alexi."

"Samantha tells me their share price has mostly recovered since the restructuring."

Leo snaps out of his daydreaming, "It has? How?"

"The margins have been slashed, they're now focusing on supplying replacement bodies to those that need them. That and doing official repairs and upgrades."

"Frigging hell. How'd that come about?"

"The CEO stepped down. It helped that he was given a large incentive to do so. Although that's confidential information only for DCL and key Persona staff."

"Given by who?"

"That I don't know."

A moment later Mattie remembers her earlier request, "Add this track please!"

"Done."

"What's it called? I think Toby might like it."

"Sweat it out by Robots With Rayguns, from their album Wild Style."

Leo looks at his dash, "Nice album artwork."

Mattie's phone rings again, she goes to tap Bart's console to route the call through his speakers, pulls her hand away and uses the API. "Hi Alexi, we're on our way."

"Thank God, have you got the laptop and helmet with you?"

She throws Leo a very worried look and mouths Frig, "Um.. No? D'you think we need it?"

"No idea. The rest of the team are freaking out a bit, I've had to prevent staff calling her an ambulance twice."

"Hold on, hold on, you're not saying the book and what's happening to Zoe are related are you?"

"I think they might be. She was reading it before I sent it to you."

"She can read Russian?"

"No, she used the live translate app on her phone."

"How far did she get?"

"Chapter five I think."

"What's she doing now?"

"Sitting at her desk rigid as a board looking at her active desktop."

"We need the gear. Damn. Bart, how long would it take to go back for it?"

"Based on projected traffic volumes, there and back eighty four minutes."

"Leo, you couldn't ask L1 to grab them for us and meet us close to Persona could you?"

"I could phone him. But you'd get the message to him faster. Your radio?"

"Bart, can you drive for a moment please? Stick to the route you've got."

Half an hour later Mattie got a message from L1 that he could see a bright yellow Lexus heading south. There was a service station in twelve miles.

"Your brother's saved the day Leo. Bart, next service station pull in please, park up where there's plenty of space for a large drone to land safely next to us."

"Understood. We'll be there in just over ten minutes. I can see him in my roof camera, he's to my seven thirty."

Leo turns to look out of the lowering window, "He's moving fast! Should he be so close to the ground? I've not seen one of them fly like this before. The drone's practically sideways like aircraft props."

"Sure you have."

"Close but not at that angle Angel."

Mattie silently asked Bart to see what he could see through the roof camera. "It doesn't leave much wiggle room if a motor fails. Mind if we have the window back up Bunny?"

Leo turns to see Mattie's hair blowing in all directions in the strong draft, "Oops! Sorry Angel!" He opens the glove box and rummages through the collection of stuff hoping to find a hair brush. "Why have we got a tube of Shockwaves super strong hair gel?"

"We have? It's not mine."

"Mine neither. Bart? Who's is this?"

"It's out of my peripheral vision, can you ... I've never seen it before."

"Who else has been for rides Bart?"

"Without either of you? Nobody."

They sit in silence for several minutes.

Mattie doesn't take her eyes off the road, just looks ahead and bites her lower lip. "Hmm. Soph. It must be Soph's, for when she's doing the dance classes and Jason's not been able to get her there."

Leo takes something from the glove box in a closed hand and sticks it in his left jacket pocket.

"What was that Leo?"

"Something we thought you'd lost."

"What?"

"I'll show you in a moment." He nods at the sign saying the motorway exit was coming up. "You'll like it."

As Bart slows to leave the motorway they both see L1 and the drone cut across the slip road and back again, vanish below the low embankment.

"Frigging hell he likes to steam in and steam out. A1 said he was a bit of a speed junkie. Would you fly like that or has forking given him that?"

"Forking. I like speed but not when it's so close to the trees. Maybe he's been talking to Nis?"

They approach the mini roundabout and turn left to see a mostly empty car park with L1 about to touch tarmac, the drone deploying its three legs.

'Hello you two.' L1's wings finish folding away and he drops the last foot to his feet. 'Could one of you get the bag off my back please?'

Leo opens his door, 'Sure, I'll do it. How was the flight?'

'Good thanks, I narrowly missed shredding a dozy wood pigeon that flew into our path. And there's next to no flies about. Fly vapour out of the back of the drone leaves a horrid sticky mess. At least with the wax James gave me it washes off easily.'

Mattie gets out and joins them both. "You've had a Satsuma too?"

"I don't eat fruit.."

"I mean you've had a wax like Rachael's dragon Satsuma."

"Her dragon? I've not met it. Quite possibly, if it's the same waxing Bart gets."

"Four layers?"

"Four? You don't get four do you Bart?"

"I do."

"I'm being short changed!"

Leo drops the bag onto the back seats. "I'll have words. Thanks for getting it to us, we better get a move on."

"No problem, it was nice to get out and do something. I'll see you around." The drone's props spin up. "You might want to get into Bart Mattie, unless you're after an even wilder bed head look."

"Don't worry, I'm going to race into those shops and get a hairbrush."

The drone lifts off the ground and hovers at six feet. L1 opens his wings up and reaches up for two of the four hand grips. 'See you soon, I hope your mission goes well.'

There's a scream from the four props as they go to full power dragging L1 rapidly into the sky.

Mattie watches him turn north and race away. "Next mission, a new hairbrush. Won't be long."

"Don't you want to see what I found?"

"I do.'

Leo pulls it from his pocket and holds his hand out in a fist, palm down. "Put a hand out."

Mattie frowns slightly and does as asked. It's dropped onto hers. "OH MY GOD! Leo!" Arms are thrown around her husband. "Thank you thank you thank you!" He's given a firm kiss to the lips. "That's awesome!"

"Why'd you taken it off?"

"Sophie was cleaning it after we'd gone swimming, left it on the open glove box door to dry. We think when we parked at the restaurant she closed it and the ring moved. We spent _ages_ looking for it, emptied everything out. Twice. It was nowhere to be found. Aww thanks Bunny."

"It must have jumped into the space between the outer side of the box and the car body."

Mattie slides her special shark and dolphin ring on and holds her hand out to admire it. "Awesome! Let's go."

"Hairbrush?"

"Oh, yes, sorry, the ring popped it off the stack. Won't be long!"

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-4-2)


	4. Chapter 4

Leo drove while Mattie got her hair back under control. Despite being synth hair it still knotted given the chance, just like Sophie's Arabella. "What gets your vote guys; two bunches, one either side above my ears, two bunches at the back, a plat or a very high ponytail?"

A frowning emoji appears on Bart's dash. "Guys? You'd like my opinion?"

"Sure Bart."

"A high ponytail then."

Leo smiles and nods, "Same. If you can go back to doing your Own It walk too.."

Mattie smirks, "I always own it.."

"Not in a way others can see though. Your walk is.. um"

"Um?"

"Sexy's not the right word but close."

"You men! By the way, I've been thinking of getting a Hester style bob cut, that should calm you down."

"NO! Mattie please don't!"

Bart's emoji changes to one of shock. "Why would you do that!"

She chuckles, "Ok, ok, I'll keep it long, just for you horny guys!"

Bart beeps his horn a few times getting laughter from both of his passengers. "We'll be there in just under ten minutes."

"Can you phone Alexi and let him know please?"

"Certainly." 

Alexi meets them in the car park. "Thanks for coming so fast."

"You're part of the extended family, we drop everything for family."

"Thanks Mattie. She's not changed, she's still at her desk. Her vital signs are good, she's just unresponsive."

Leo frowns, "Did you see what was on her desk display?"

"No, it had gone into inactivity lock before anyone realised something was wrong."

"Can you unlock it?"

"It's locked to her crazy face, I can do an admin override to get into the system but it won't show me her desktop."

Mattie glances at Leo, 'Maybe we should have brought Matthew or Leona along.'

'Or both.'

Mattie looks back at the car to where the bag sat, "Harun's told us about the crazy faces you pull to unlock the desktop, have you seen her pull hers?"

"No, she's too embarrassed to do it in front of me."

"Would any of the staff have seen it?"

"I guess so."

"Good, let's talk to them and see who's memory of it we can pull."

"How's that going to help? It needs to be her pulling the face not you."

"Oh it will be her face, just me in control. If we can get your camera interfaced to the laptop."

"Cameras. It uses stereo vision. Having your face on the laptop screen won't work."

"I was thinking more along the lines of having her camera hooked up to our VR. What interface does it use?"

"USB3."

"We've got that on the laptop. We'd need one of those USB host to host cables though."

Leo shakes his head, "Two old cables, scissors and some tape will do. We just need to link ground wires and cross the data lines, the rest is all software, our laptop USB ports can run in all modes."

"That's good, we've got a ton of those. Come in."

In the reception they're given badges by Poppy. "If you could both wear these please."

"Hi, are you the Poppy that.."

"I am. The very first Poppy to be built. He's a good designer isn't he."

"Very. Nice to meet you at last. We met one of your sisters in America."

"You did? I didn't know I've gone abroad. Thanks. Will Zoe be okay?"

"I do hope so."

"If there's anything I can do to help please let me know."

"Sure."

At the desk they found Zoe just as Alexi had described her. It was like she was a powered down synth. Mattie tries to move her arm, there's a lot of resistance and on letting go it snaps back to where it had been.

Leo gets out the laptop and powers it up. "Can someone find us the cables please Alexi?"

He looks around the room, "Guys, who's got the collection of old mice that we never use on the servers? We want a couple of tails."

One of the designers pulls a sorry face, "Your wife, in her server room."

"Okay, who's got a phone charger cable they can spare? I'll get a replacement."

Two cables are dropped onto the desk, Alexi finds Leo some scissors and tape. "Have you done this before?"

"I've seen Danny do something similar. As we're not powering anything from it the cable being so thin shouldn't matter. Ah. That's not helpful."

Mattie looks at the cut end. "Why would they use four wires all the same colour?"

"It's cheeper to make, it's put together by a machine and they expect it to be binned when it fails not repaired. We'll need something to work out which is which."

Alexi goes to a spare desk covered in all sorts of things and picks up a small set of PC speakers and portable CD player. "How about this? Cut the speaker cable and use it as a continuity tester."

Mattie shakes her head, "Wow, that's old school. Got any CDs?"

"There's one in there. Solid Gold Hits by The Beastie Boys."

"Nice. Because you can't, you won't and you don't stop.."

"You know it?"

"I've been listening to a lot of old music. And by a lot I mean tens of thousands of tracks. All on Danny's streaming service. Well I say Danny's, it's a joint venture with Peter."

Leo gets cutting. "Anyone got a few paper clips please?"

Alexi nods, "Even today the fabled paperless office doesn't exist. One sec."

Leo gets touching wires, a paper clip held on the USB plug connector, another on a bare wire end. "Not that one. Or that one." Music plays. "Okay, that one is ground. Label please." A few minutes later and he's identified the wires in both cables and twisted ends together. "Okay. One host to host cable. We'll need the laptop close to where it connects."

Alexi shows him where.

"Good." The camera is disconnected and plugged into the laptop, a tool run. "That makes life a lot easier. Internally it's two individual cameras and two port USB hub chip in a single housing. Not one special stereo vision camera."

"That helps?"

"Yeah, we just have our VR create two view points that are at the same distance apart as the real thing. All we need to do now is work out what type of lens is on the front so we can give it a similar field of view. Does anyone have a piece of.. oh thanks Alexi, mind reader?"

"Just a good guess."

Leo draws a series of lines on the paper and opens an app to see one of the camera views. "It's wider than I'd expected. About 35mm. Time to pull some memories of the crazy face."

Memories pulled Leo picks through the data for the bit they wanted, discards the rest. "Thanks Tom, sorry about the headache, it should clear soon. Mattie, you can jump in now, build the virtual room."

"Okay buns, hopefully you'll see the desktop unlock soon. Keep the camera plugged in, I'll keep an eye on it to know when to jump out."

Alexi puts a hand up, "The moment you vanish or disconnect the virtual camera the desktop will lock."

"Ok, I'll leave a virtual me pretending to look at the desk."

"Moving around a little?"

"Sure."

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-5-2)


	5. Chapter 5

Mattie connected to the laptop's WiFi and entered the VR, slumped backwards and was caught just in time by Leo. "Sorry, she's used to doing this in seats not backless stools."

"How can we help?"

"She's getting warmer, I suspect she's overclocking to get things built in the VR, hopefully this won't take long at all."

Tom gave him the hardest of frowns, "Like dreaming? Minutes of dream time done in seconds?"

"That's it. Probably what Zoe is doing right now."

Tom looks closely into her eyes, then at Alexi, "Ha! It's subtle but there!"

Alexi does the same, "Like REM sleep but somehow reduced to microscopic movements?"

Leo looks too, "It looks like it. The rapid eye movements are being limited by whatever is making her so rigid."

The desktop goes from black to a bright green animated field of grass, a sea of sunflowers in the distance.

Leo looks down at the display as Mattie jumps back into her body. "What's that?"

"Grass and sunflowers?"

"I meant what sort."

Alexi places his ID card on the glass, taps and drags around the desktop, "The metadata for the folder the grass design is in says it's latin name is Vulpia Bromoides."

"Nice. I love how it moves. It's very realistic."

"Odd though, there's no author data. Where'd she get it from?"

Mattie does a little shiver shake, pulls a face and rubs just under the ears with both hands, the memory still fresh, "Can Zoe dislocate her jaw?"

"Did I hear right?"

She looks at Alexi, "Yup. It was the only way I could pull the face she makes. So glad it was virtual, I don't think I'd risk trying it in this body." She looks down and sideways at the desk. "Oh. Is this what was on her desktop? Just a field of grass and flowers?"

"Yes."

"No apps? No documents?"

"No."

"Frig. It's not exactly a great clue as to what happened is it."

Leo wipes a hand over the desk and a blustery wind rolls across the grass. "It's interactive? It's quite impressive for a screen saver. This is running from her desktop?"

Alexi taps and opens windows, looks at a process list. "It's local, no idea where it came from. It's not Persona code that's for sure."

"How long has it been installed?"

Alexi taps a lot more, "That's odd. Possibly the same amount of time Zoe's been in that state? Guys, an of you seen this screen saver before?"

All of the team come to the desk, shake heads or say no, return to their work.

"She must have brought it in."

Mattie picks up the helmet. "Do we risk trying a backup Leo? It might help us understand what she did?"

"It might. But if she's not able to talk to us she can't tell us if it's giving her a killer headache."

"True. Frigging hell. How on earth do we bring her back if we can't use the helmet?" She waves her had in front of Zoe's face. "Nothing." She gets up and steps back, "Her vital signs are good. When did she last eat?"

"This morning. A good breakfast."

"We could take her to Sentinel House, drop her backwards into a bath of water Inception stile? No idea if it would work or what the shock might do to her."

"I'd rather you didn't kill the mother of my child."

"Frigging hell Alexi! Me neither! Which is why I suggested we go to S.H, we'd have the team about to help with any medical issues."

"Angel, how do you suggest we get her there? She's stuck in that position."

"Um... we sit her in the front passenger seat, get her in bum first?"

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-6-2)


	6. Chapter 6

Fred glances up from the patient he was working on, sees them through the door windows 'Hello Mattie, Leo. I need a little longer to wrap up here, sorry.'

'How long Freddie?'

'About fifteen minutes.'

'What's the op?'

'Emergency neck vertebrae replacement. Jimmy broke his neck,'

'Jimmy? Not our Jimmy?'

'Yes, our Jimmy.'

'Oh fuck! What happened?'

'An accident. His wife's in shock, he put his life at risk to save her, broke his neck in the fall. If you could talk to her. She's in the waiting room.'

'Shit, of course Fred. We'll sit Zoe down and have a chat. What's the prognosis?'

'You are joking? He'll be walking out of here in an hour. Though he'll be banned from the gym for a few months.'

'He's not going to like that.'

'Maybe not, better that than dead. He was lucky this time, no spinal cord damage. A next time might not go so well. I've got work to do, go see Vicky please.'

Leo offers to get Zoe in with Alexi while Mattie talks to Jimmy's wife.

Mattie enters the waiting room to see just one person, shaking visibly with shock.

"Hi, Vicky?"

The lady wipes tears away and smiles sadly, hands trembling, "Yes?"

"I'm Mattie. Doctor Elster-Hawkins."

"Hello."

"We finally meet at last."

Vicky looks away, shakes even more as the tears flow, "All those parties of yours I've missed over the years with my bloody work trips, then I get some decent time off and I do this to him, get to visit." She bursts into heavy crying.

Mattie puts an arm around her, "What happened?"

It takes a while for her to settle down. "We were in London, a romantic trip along the Thames. Walking along the peer my heal broke and I lost my balance, started to fall over the railing. Jimmy grabbed me and went to pull me back, the railing failed and we both went over."

"Into the water?"

"Onto a barge. Somehow he landed underneath me."

"Wanting to break your fall?"

"Maybe. Probably" She bursts into tears again, Mattie has to work hard to understand the words that follow.

"He landed onto something?"

Vicky nods and blows her nose. 

Mattie gets up and crouches down in front of her, "I'm sorry our first meeting had to be like this. But listen, Fred's the best. Honestly, things will work out okay. And you're part of our DCL family, you'll get all the help you need getting Jimmy back to normal as fast as possible."

Jimmy's wife wipes tears away and smiles, "Thanks."

"And you didn't do this to him. Unless you took a tool to your shoe to weaken it and tampered with the railings. Which I'm sure you didn't. Which I _know_ you didn't. It was an accident, nothing more."

"Will Jimmy really be okay?"

Mattie smiles as warmly as she can, "He's got one of the world's best surgeons working on him, Fred says he'll be up and walking in an hour."

The shaking subsides a little. "Are you serious?"

"Very. As I said, Freddie is _the_ best. Jimmy might be on a powerful cocktail of pain killers for a few days, but he'll be fine to drive home."

"That soon?"

"Yup."

Vicky leans forwards and throws her arms around Mattie's neck, "Thank you so much!"

"Watch the neck! You'll need to avoid doing that with Jimmy for a little while."

"Sorry."

"No problem for me, just make sure not to do it with your husband." She looks to the doors as Leo and Alexi enter with Zoe.

"What happened to her?"

"We don't know. She's been like this for a few hours."

"Locked-in syndrome?""

"What's that?"

"Something C.S.I used in a episode."

Mattie goes online and searches, "I'm reasonably sure she's not had a stroke, her vital signs are all good. We'll get one of the nurses to take some blood for tests. We'll know pretty fast."

"How fast?"

"As soon as the results start coming out of the machines."

"You don't send it away to a lab?"

"Nope. Gesha's been building up quite a collection of blood testing machines."

"Who?"

"Fred's wife and fellow surgeon."

Vicky said nothing, her face did it for her, a mixture of being surprised and impressed. Jimmy had only given a hint as to what the place could do. With her mind occupied with someone else's problems Vicky's shaking fades. She watches a nurse enter with a tray of syringes. She looks from the tray to Mattie, "You said 'we'll get', future tense. Yet here she is?"

Mattie flashes a guilty smile, "Sorry, that's our silent head bump thing. You wouldn't have heard it."

"Unless I have one of those choker microphones and ear pieces you use at some of your parties?"

"Jimmy's told you about them?"

"Yes." Her face brightens, "He mentioned how he could have used them on past missions. Finding out he used to be a bit of an action man not a photocopier salesman came as a bit of a shock. I thought he was just one of those gym obsessed body builder types. I could do with some of those gadgets at home, they'd save me from shouting when he's messing around in the garage under that car of his."

"The Land Rover?"

"No, his kit car."

"He's building a kit car? What sort?"

"You'll have to ask him. It's small, a two seater petrol guzzler I think. Or at least it will be when it's finished, it's taking forever."

"Petrol? When we could give him an electric motor?"

"He says he's doing a James whatever that means. The whole thing is being built from parts he's getting from a friends breakers yard."

"Well if we can't get you an engine at least pick up some communications gear from Danny before you leave."

"Thanks. She's still not moved. What's her name?"

Alexi looks over, "Zoe. She's my wife, mother of my child."

"Oh. Sorry. Has she done this before?"

"No."

Mattie looks at the distant floor and bites both lips for a couple of seconds. "I have. Only I don't remember a lot of the details for a number of reasons."

Vicky shifts to the edge of her seat, "What triggered it?"

"Something I read in a book. I don't recall anything of it, I crash rebooted and wiped sensory data, or so Karen tells me. That's all she'd say."

"Which book?"

"I don't recall that either."

"I do."

They all look at Alexi.

"But I'm keeping that to myself, it's done enough harm as it is."

Vicky shakes her head, "You're as bad as some of the people I work with. You can't fix something when you hide what the actual problem is."

"If I shared the details you might end up like my wife."

"Spare me the fine details. What's the synopsis?"

"How to travel between parallel realities."

"You are kidding me? You don't really believe it do you?"

"You don't think it possible?"

Vicky does a slow head shake, "I think finding life on another planet is more likely. Parallel realities. You've been watching far too many scifi films."

"Are you saying they don't exist or you couldn't jump between them?"

"Both! Oh come on, it's a bit far fetched."

"So were synths before the start of the millennia."

Vicky sits back in her seat, "True. Okay let's for a moment say it's true, that you can do it, why would your mind go there not your whole body?"

Mattie shrugs, "Maybe you jump into someone else, or yourself for a while?"

Vicky turns to see her, "And what happens to them, the previous owner, where do they go?"

"Frigging good question. I don't know."

"Maybe it's like dominoes, everyone gets pushed on one, the one at the end pushed into nothing. Death."

"Not a nice way to go. Oh. First test results are back. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"I think we need to know more about this book."

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-7-2)


	7. Chapter 7

Vicky eventually stopped the tears of happiness, took a step back to see her husband properly.

Jimmy smiled at his wife, slowly and gingerly moved his head from side to side, up and down. "Amazing. Fred's amazing. A true life saver. I thought it would be game over. What's with the synth?"

Vicky frowns, "Who do you mean?"

"The statue."

"That's Alexi's wife, she's human. I mean organic human."

"What the fuck happened to her? Are you her partner?" he keeps his gaze on Alexi.

"Yes. We think it's something to do with a book she read."

"A book? What book?"

"Parallel realities and how to jump between them."

"That sounds like a croc of shit. Got a copy?"

"We did have, until Mattie had it shredded."

Leo raises a hand, "I'm told that was my fault."

"So get another."

Alexi rests his jaw on his palms, "Slight problem there. It's banned from being sold outside the USSR. Getting my copy took a long time and needed a lot of help."

They all turn to see as a door opens.

"How are you feeling now Jimmy?"

"Good Fred, good. Thanks so much."

"Not a problem. I've not done one like that for a long while. I need to thank Noel for the tips."

"Noel?"

"A specialist surgeon."

Vicky does a Sophie head tilt, "You don't mean the vet do you?"

"I do. He's a big inspiration. It's all flesh and bone, if it works on an animal why not you fabs?"

Mattie stands and hangs on Fred's shoulder, "Freddie Fox Fixer. You've not heard his nickname?"

"No?"

"I was given an injured fox by my father. It was the first life I saved. These are for you Jimmy, take as an when needed, no more than eight a day."

Jimmy accepts the small pack. "That feels light."

"I'm good, hopefully you won't need more than half a dozen."

Mattie smiles, "That's not self-conceited arrogance. Just the facts. Fred's the best."

"Maybe. What's wrong with my next patient?"

Mattie and Alexi start explaining, Vicky mentions the locked-in syndrome idea.

Fred looks at Alexi, "May I see the book please?"

"Sorry, we don't have it anymore."

"Original language used?"

"Russian but I.."

"One moment." Fred goes online and looks frozen and distant.

"He's not done a Zoe has he?"

"No Vicky, he's searching. At least I hope he is."

"Good. Good at languages is he?"

Mattie returns to the seat, "The best in the family."

They watch in silence, only broken by Jimmy looking at the watch on Zoe's wrist. "Five minutes. I thought you lot were lightning fast with searches?"

"Frigging hell Jimmy, give him a chance, the entire Internet's a big place!"

"Not heard of Google?"

"Who says the result he wants is on page one?"

Jimmy keeps quiet and stops looking at the watch.

Another eleven minutes twenty three seconds later Fred smiles. "I've found it. Translated into Hindi of all languages."

"Hindi? Why Hindi?"

"I have no idea." he smiles wider, "That's why the Russians didn't want it getting out. He's not exactly a fraud, although these other writers say it's a self hypnosis book disguised as a way to jump into other worlds. With only one way out. A doorway someone else has to open. I suspect they wanted to gift it to their worst enemies."

Mattie is back on her feat, turns to look at Zoe, "And the door? What is it Fred?"

"Simple. Their name. Shouted very very loudly. Ear drum damaging loudly. She may need surgery after."

"Frigging hell! Perceived loud or real loud?"

"Perceived I expect. Why?"

"I can fake a loud yell at lower db levels. ZOE!"

They watch for signs of Zoe waking.

"Frig. Nothing."

Fred crouches down in front of her. "Keep going, she has to return to where she came in."

After twenty minutes of shouting Zoe every five seconds Mattie stops. "It's not working."

"It may be different to dreaming, she may have to walk back, not just make the jump in her mind."

"Frigging hell. ZOE.. ZOE.. ZOE.."

Over forty minutes pass.

"I'm not convinced."

Leo gets beside them. "If she'd been walking for hours before we got her here she'll need hours to get back."

"Hours! Oh for frig's sake. Go get some lunch and bring some back for me please. I've not had breakfast. I'll keep going."

Leo stands, "Sugar loaded coffees?"

"Please. ZOE!.. ZOE!.. ZOE!.." she waves the others away, "Go! Get coffee! Lots of it!"

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-8-2)


	8. Chapter 8

Three hours, forty eight minutes and thirty seven seconds after she'd shouted the first ZOE, Alexi's wife turns to see Mattie. "Hello. Thanks for guiding me back."

"Frigging hell! Where the fuck were you?"

"In an almost unimaginably vast set of fields that went on and on until I got to a waterfall."

"A waterfall? In a field? How'd that work?"

"The edge of a sunflower field ended at the side of a deep ravine."

"And what made you want to go there?"

"I'd seen it on my desktop. I had a shitty job to do for a damaged synth and thought I'd rather be walking there. Then all of a sudden I was. I could hear the waterfall in the distance so just started walking."

"To the waterfall?"

"There were no signs of civilisation in any direction, no paths or roads. It was better than nothing."

"When you came back, what was the door like?"

"Door? There wasn't a door."

"What was there then?"

"Just you shouting my name. The closer I got the more of a point source it became."

"Point source? Like an invisible speaker?"

"Yes. I could walk around the sound in a circle. So I faced it straight on and stepped forward and here I am. If you hadn't been saying my name so frequently I'd never have got out."

"Because you'd not have located the point? Did the location matter?"

"Maybe not. But I think I had to be convinced in my mind where it was. Otherwise I'd feel lost." Zoe looks at the large collection of coffee cups. "How long have we been sat here? That's a lot of empty cups."

"Hours. Leo took Alexi to pick up Nichola from junior school."

"He was here?"

"He alerted us to your problem."

"He's a good man. Nichola is such a Daddy's girl, she'll like him collecting her."

The door opens, "I noticed the lack of shouting. How are you Zoe?"

"Good thanks Fred. Hungry but good."

Mattie nods to him, "Freddie here was the one to work out it was self hypnosis, not parallel realities." A moment later she frowns, "But if that's true Fred, how could I know about Flash?"

"Flash?"

"Max's latest girlfriend."

Zoe stands and rubs, "My bottom's gone numb. Ever seen a Derren Brown show?"

"Not live, only the TV."

"You've seen her, somewhere, you incorporated her into the reality you created in your head,"

"I'd never met her before. Fred, have you heard from Leo?"

"They're on their way back."

"Good, let's get you something to eat. Fred, is Emily about?"

"She's out with Danny, Jeff and Ted. The kitchen's all your's."

"Thanks Fred, Zoe, follow me. What do you like to eat?"

Zoe follows Mattie into the corridor. "What have you got?"

Mattie steps reasonably fast. "What do you like?"

"What have you got?"

" _All sorts_. My sister A1's been running packed lectures to school kids." She shoves the fire doors into the next part of the building wide open. "We'll have pizza, pasta, salads, bits for stir fry, various Indian dishes, vegetarian stuffed peppers and mushrooms, minute stakes, chicken nuggets, chips, chicken burgers, a stack of sandwich fillings, veg sticks and dips, fruit, yogurts, biscuits." The kitchen door is opened, "After you. And Mia's cake bars. They're frigging awesome." Mattie grabs the handles on the huge fridge and pulls both doors open. "Ta-da!"

"Bloody hell! That's not a fridge. That's a TARDIS."

"Good eh? Another DCL special. We outgrew the old one, Danny couldn't find one big enough on the market so made his own."

Zoe touches one of the shelves. "He made these bits too?"

"Yup, he made a massive temporary vacuum former. So what do you fancy?"

She looks around the selection, "Are these Scotch eggs?"

Mattie looks, "I've not seen those before. It looks like it. Want to try one?"

"And some salad."

"Sure. I quite fancy trying one of those myself."

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-9-2)


	9. Chapter 9

"Mummy!"

Zoe turns to see her little daughter, "Baby!"

Her daughter is picked up and dropped onto her lap.

"Why are you here Mummy?"

"I'm having a late lunch with Mattie."

"Hello Auntie Robot, your car is funny." the girl giggles quietly.

Alexi leans against the door, "Nicky, what did we say about calling Mattie that?"

"Sorry Daddy."

Mattie winks at the girl, "It's okay, I'm not offended. Where's Leo?"

"Talking to Danny."

"They're back? Great! I want to grab some bits and get them dropped to Vicky." 'Any of you Angels free to do a drone delivery drop to Vicky and Jimmy for me please?'

Leo, Danny and his family join them.

"Hi Matts, Hi Zoe."

"Hi Danny, can I have two sets of comms gear for Vicky and Jimmy?"

"Sure. Leo told me about Jimmy's neck, that was a close call."

"Yeah, it's not his time for a synth body."

"For any of the sales team. Leo mentioned the hypnosis problem. If that's what it was."

"What do you mean _if_?"

"You know I like a good conspiracy theory."

"Come on then, let's hear it."

"The parallel reality stuff is true, the other writers that dismissing it as self hypnosis were paid to do so to keep it's true nature hidden."

"So how did I know about Flash? If I search my fact store for her name nothing old comes up."

"Done an image search?"

"Image?"

"Go through all old memories, look for the name in text."

"That could take ages."

"Distribute the job."

"How?"

"Ask each of your sisters to work on a different week."

"Because they've all got the same old memories as me! Awesome Danny!" Mattie freezes for a moment and does as suggested. "Twenty three years of data being searched."

"Aunty?"

"Yes Nichola?"

"Why did you go still like you were sleeping?"

"It's easier to talk to lots and lots of my sisters if I concentrate."

"I do it when I'm thinking about my drawings."

"You do? How can you draw and freeze at the same time?"

"I stay still when I'm thinking about what to draw."

"Ah, thinking still, drawing moving." 

The little girl nods, "Have you got crayons?"

"No, we've got something better if you want to come into the auditorium for a bit?"

"Can I Mummy?"

"Sure Baby."

Zoe stands and lowers Nichola to the floor, holds her hand. "Daddy, couldn't bring the rest of my lunch could you?"

"Sure."

Mattie taps Alexi on the shoulder. 'How old is she now?'

'Three and a half.'

In the auditorium Mattie picks up Nichola and has Zoe hold her facing forwards, hands free. "Okay. Now for some magic!" She talks to the lighting and projection systems via their APIs. Hopefully the fun she'd had with Sophie all those years ago when they'd hooked one of the car's processing cores up to the 360 degree projector would amuse Nichola too. "Hold your hands up. Like this. That's it. Now let me paint them with my magic paint." Mattie pretends to cover them.

"What colour is it?"

"Which would you like?"

"Pink!"

"Because you're a girl?"

"Because it's pretty."

"Right, of course. Have a go at painting."

"How?"

"Point like this, or make hand prints like this."

Nichola copies her moves and giggles at the squiggle and hand print that appear on the large screen. "Mummy! Daddy! Look!"

"We see it Baby, what are you going to paint us?"

"A flower." Nichola sweeps her hands back and forth, "Weeee. Can I have a new colour Auntie?"

"Sure, which would you like?"

"Green please."

"You've got it."

Nichola sweeps a finger around to make a stalk and leaves. "This is fun!"

"I thought you might like it. Sophie did when she was younger."

"What can I paint next?"

Mattie freezes for a moment.

"Auntie what can I paint next?"

Mattie snaps back, "Cool! I have an answer. Sorry did you ask me something? I was talking to my sisters."

"What can I paint next?"

"Whatever you'd like."

Leo and Danny enter.

"Bunny do you like Nichola's flower?"

"Very nice, Flash would like a picture of that."

"Speaking of Flash, I have an answer from A693. Years ago Mum had a copy of Heat magazine. On page eleven was a small advert for Flash, _the ideal child minding synth_."

Leo smiles, "There you go then, like Zoe it was all created from things already in your head."

Alexi shrugs, "I guess so. Where'd you get the grass and sunflowers screen saver from Zoe?"

"Me? I assumed you loaded it?"

"I've never seen it before."

Nichola paints a rectangle and triangle, adds arms and legs, then heads, eyes and big smiling mouths. "Mummy and Daddy." She yawns, "I asked the lady on the television to share her pictures with you Mummy."

"What lady?"

The little girl rolls her eyes, " _The one on the television_."

"Yes dear, but which lady?"

" _The one with the pretty pictures_!"

"She talks to you?"

" _On CBeebies_!"

Zoe turns her daughter around, "How long has she been talking to you Baby?"

The girl does an exaggerated gesture kids are so good at, " _For ever_." She smiles at Mattie, "Auntie, can I come back and do that again?"

Mattie returns it and nods, "Sure. As long as we're not running classes."

Zoe steps to Mattie, "Thanks again. If I make the mistake of doing that again I think I'll know how to get out myself. One step forward, turn 180 and make a determined step back. We better get madam home, she needs a nap."

"Can Auntie Robot have a cuddle before you go?"

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-10-2)


	10. Chapter 10

Bart watched the little human through his many cameras, "She fell asleep very quickly."

Zoe looks down at her daughter, "She still needs her afternoon nap. She's only little."

"She didn't fall asleep when we picked her up."

Alexi smiles at Nichola, "She hadn't had the excitement of a conversation with a talking car before."

His dash emoji changes to big happy smile then puzzled face, "Alexi you're a synth, she's a fab. How.."

Zoe laughs and goes a little red, "Alexi was a fab too when we met."

"So he's post-human synth like Mattie and Leo."

"Exactly."

"So your daughter was made before Alexi got converted?"

"Bart!"

"Sorry Mattie. I'm just trying to understand more."

Zoe leans forward and sideways to see his dash, "It's okay. Yes Nichola was conceived before Alexi died. Although I wasn't aware at the time I was pregnant."

"When did you know?"

"When the morning sickness started."

Mattie looks at her in the rear view mirror, "Was it bad?"

"Horrible. I'm glad I won't be going through that again."

Family dropped home Mattie and Leo return to the factory and find Astrid and Niska sat on the steps talking.

"Everything okay?"

Niska looks up, "It is now. I'm giving Astrid a Hawkins and Elster history lesson."

"Why? What happened?"

"Toby asked me something and Astrid got the wrong idea."

"Huh?"

"I was talking about getting the bike out. He said 'I've not seen you in your black SS outfit for ages.' Astrid thought I meant Schutzstaffel."

"Why would you think that?"

"Where I'm from nobody dares make SS stand for anything else. It's a dark part of our history that the majority of us wish hadn't happened. But it did and we don't want to forget. We don't want anyone starting that sort of group again. German's have moved on, thoughts and actions are of peace not war."

Mia joins them, "Hello, what are you all doing out here?"

"History lessons."

"That's a coincidence. I've just done one with Tim."

"You have?"

"More of a history unlesson." she grins wickedly.

"Eh? You've untaught him something?"

"Yes. He.. he had a little problem a few years ago. I got him watching some things to desensitise him. It was a mistake. It worked but I fear he's started to objectify, the compassion is fading. The passion too."

Leo pulls a guilty face, "The other Mia?"

"You know about her?"

"Tim mentioned her when we were down the pub."

Mia turns and storms back to the entrance, "More memories to wipe!"

"MIA!"

She turns and scowls at Leo. "What is it Leo?"

"What are you doing?"

"Wiping the memory of that conversation."

"How? You can't just go wiping memories because you don't like something."

"I can, my recipe worked very well."

"I mean can't as in it's unethical."

"I planted the idea, I can remove it."

"Does he know you want to do it?"

"No, he thinks he's playing a game in the VR."

"God Mia! That's even worse! Let him at least know what you're doing and why!"

"Have you seen the videos?"

"No."

"You're lying."

"Okay. A few seconds of one to satisfy my curiosity. Not my thing."

Mia looks at him blankly, "That wasn't a lie. Lucky for Mattie."

"Talk to him Mia."

"I'll show him the memories I'm deleting from the backup before I do the restore."

"You're giving him an amnesia pill?"

"Large drink would be a better description. I can't concentrate the formula down to pill size without killing the active ingredients."

Mattie thinks back to all the PTSD work she'd done. "If you're wiping long term memories through backup-delete-restore then he'll have short term memories of you editing them out surely?"

Mia smiles softly, "Not if I'm deleting them too while he's under."

"I still think it's unethical. A slippery slope."

"Leo. Would you rather I kicked him out, became a single parent?"

"Well no.."

"Fix it is then. I'm not staying with him if all he can think about is _that_ with a dumb blonde. No offence Nis, you're far from dumb."

Astrid looks up, " _That_? Was ist _That?_ " she looks around waiting for someone to answer her.

Mattie looks at Leo, 'Bunny?'

'Think back to your pregnancy and no entry signs.'

'What? Oh. Ew. The dirty bastard.'

'Whisper it to Astrid would you?'

'No thanks!'

'Someone has to.'

'No they don't. Mia's erasing memories. Want her working on Astrid for Niska?'

'Now you put it like that..'

Mattie smiles, "Just something old Emily _may_ have tried. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh. Why is Mia so worked up about it?"

Mattie looks at Mia, trying to read her expression, "Maybe it makes her think of Tim cheating on her with Niska?"

Mia goes to say something then realises what Mattie was doing, keeps quiet.

Niska looks shocked, "With Tim? When I have Odi and Astrid?"

"I didn't say you _would_ Nis, just that it's a thought that may be troubling Mia."

Mia smiles at Mattie and heads indoors.

Niska pulls out her phone and finds a photo. "This is what I was about to show you. The four of us in our Sister Synth gear. Swipe left to see our sisters in the USA."

Astrid looks at the image, eyes wide open, this looks, was ist.. Kinky. She swipes, "You do this too Mattie?"

"Me? No, that's my sister Scarlett, she's a fork I had made for US Jimmy."

"Who's the other lady?"

"That'll be Baby, a fork of Niska. Different body due to a rescue mission years ago."

Astrid turns to Niska, "You allowed yourself to be copied?"

"We were saving Harun. It's a long story. I'll tell you another day."

"Your designer. I see. Could you teach me to ride a bike like you?"

"One of the e-bikes?"

"Sure. Holly-Anne isn't a synth and she's in your group."

"She was, we haven't performed with her for some time now."

"Why?"

"Her costume didn't fit after having the quads."

"Does it now?

Niska looks up at Mattie with a questioning look.

"Frig, I don't know."

"It would fit now."

"Bunny?"

"Toby says she's lost the weight, thanks to Sam, Mia and Laura at Jim's Gym."

Astrid looks up at Leo, "Jim's Gym is where?"

"London, our salesman Jimmy uses.. used it. He won't be using if for a few months while he recovers."

"Recovers? What happened?"

"He broke his neck. Fred fixed it, he's walking already but won't be using the gym until Fred says he can."

Astrid looks at Niska, "So can I join in?"

"If that's what you'd like to do."

She smiles at Mattie, "I think I should use this gym. And you should join the team too."

"Me? Frigging hell no!"

"Why not? Do you not like how Scarlett looks?"

"Um.."

"I do."

She turns to see her grinning husband, "Bunny!"

"Well she is based on you, so how could I not?"

"You men.."

"I like how _you'd_ look in the outfit."

"I bet you do!"

"So you'll do it?"

"No!"

"Why? Why is it any worse than any of the cosplay's you've done? Some of the figure hugging dresses? Or being an Angel in what looks like a skin tight white costume?"

Mattie thought about the last one and couldn't find a suitable excuse they'd accept. Damn it. "Okay. On two conditions. One, I get a new bike Bart can ride in with me. Two, I get to try out _without_ the costume first. The leathers follow _only_ if I like it."

Astrid stands, "If Niska, Mia, Emily, Holly-Anne, Baby and Scarlett like it why wouldn't you? I've seen the photos of you from your fashion week. I spoke to the interior design lady at the party, it sounds like something Mattie the fashion model would do."

Leo nods, "And it would be like your Black Widow cosplay minus the red wig. Just better boots. And when you're on the bike you can talk to Bart like you're on a mission."

Niska had her phone screen facing Mattie and playing a slideshow, images shot in the hotel in New York. "Are you regretting your past?"

"Hell no!"

Astrid looks at the phone again, the slide show having stopped on a Sister Synth US image, "Scarlett and Baby, their pose together, the way they're embraced, they look a bit, um.. raffiniert.. was ist das wort.. raunchy?"

"They're lovers."

"They're dating each other?"

"Yes."

"Ah." She smiles seductively at Niska, "So when I asked is it your thing your mind was open to the idea?"

Niska smiles back, cheekily, "It may have been."

"Your thing! Tim likes dancing?"

Mattie sniggers, "Dancing of sorts. Highly choreographed repetitive moves no doubt."

Niska stands too, wanting to change the subject quickly, "Having Bart along would be rather nice. Maybe we should all get bike upgrades? Danny would have to redesign the internal frame to accommodate a processor core."

Mattie licks her top teeth and grins, "Fancy a team name change and slight change of costume Nis?"

"To what?"

"Black Widow Bikers. I reckon you'd look good with red hair."

Astrid looks at the steps and tries not to laugh, "Confession time. She does, very good. And I've been to a convention once with a girlfriend."

"You have?"

"Search for #GCCBerlin2014 and you'll find a photograph of me as Sally Patchwork."

Mattie jumps on the WiFi and does so, "I'm finding a few Sally, did you have a clear bag with what looks like three Blu-ray discs?"

"That's me."

"Great costume!"

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-11-2)


	11. Chapter 11

They all find Danny and Toby downstairs in the VR room. Danny is slumped in a chair, Toby in the exoskeleton running noisily through something virtual, waving an arm about as if wielding a longsword.

Mattie puts a finger to her lips and waves everyone in. Quietly the monitor is switched on and sound volume lowered. It''s slowly lifted and turned around to allow everyone to watch. She mouths words as clearly as possible and does a mime: Yazz's World!

They watch in silence as Toby and Danny fight their way through army after army of orcs, goblins and mythical beasts. Mattie pulls a face to say she's impressed. They were working together as a single two sword swinging unit. The men reach a mountain edge and leap off the top into the void Assassin's Creed style.

The VR camera doesn't look down, just makes a similar jump and carries on looking forward. Bits of tree race past for second after second. Surely this would be the end of their gameplay? Then two feet shoot past the camera in a blur of orange. Feet with claws.

Mattie looked up at them all, 'OMG! Satsuma! Only scaled up!' She mouthed the words for Astrid.

The camera tracked and panned until it showed the two men sat on the dragon's neck. Mattie looked over at Toby and laughed inwards at the way he was seated. Suspended in the air it looked quite comical. She watches the monitor again and sees they're being carried to a ruined castle. A castle with a second dragon. All black. At the entrance to the ruins a single figure stood with a longsword, tip on the ground, both hands on the hilt. The hands were at head height.

Satsuma lands a safe distance away as the black dragon throws a giant ball of fire in their direction. Toby and Danny are off in a flash and racing at the other player.

Even with the two men working together they can't get close enough to dispatch the third player. When they do get close they have to back off to avoid being incinerated by the flames from the dragon.

Then Toby makes a wrong move and the opposition's longsword takes his head clean off. The VR exoskeleton does a full roll several times simulating his head tumbling across the ground. "Fuck! All down to you mate!"

Mattie has a hand clamped tight over her mouth to prevent laughter escaping.

They watch as Danny lunges forward and tries to stab the other player. Even with arm outstretched his sword is only long enough to inflict minor damage. He gets a sword through the chest as a reward for stepping so close.

"Shit mate, we'll get there one day.. Win enough battles and we'll get the points to buy the longer swords.. You reckon? Only another fifty? Sweet!"

Mattie turns the volume up as their opponent pulls back her hood, "Nice try guys. See you again tomorrow?"

"Sure Yasmin. You've got Satsuma perfect. How long did it take in the designer?"

"Not long, Fred gave me some memories of how she looked, we loaded them up and got the shapes we designed to match. Programming her AI and motion was the hardest. You think it's ready for general release on Yazz's World?"

"Hell yes!"

"Cool. Much as you want to get the points to get the longer swords an win the game once it's live for the public everyone is back to zero credits."

"WHAT!"

"Sorry Toby. I could delay release?"

"No, it's okay, we can't hold you up any longer."

"How about you fight on my side? You're good enough."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome!"

"Frigging Awesome!"

"Fuck! Danny mate, we've got an audience! Mattie's here."

"And Leo, Niska, Astrid and Mia."

"Shit. You sneaky cow slaps."

Mattie taps a function key on the keyboard, "Nice work Yazz! It looks fantastic!"

"Mattie!"

Everyone sees her looking around, unsure of where the voice came from.

"Hi, we're in the VR room, watching on the monitor. Fred not playing?"

"He was monitoring everything to help ensure it's ready."

"It looks great, is this the first new game you're putting online?"

"A Yazz's World original? Yes. The exo's working brilliantly thanks."

Toby pulls the headset up, "I'm thirsty, can someone unstrap me please?"

Danny disconnects from the VR server and sits up, looks at the monitor. "Girl Power! I salute your stamina Yasmin. You too Obi."

"Yeah, well done knob cock, you're such a girl."

"I'll take that as a compliment if you're likening me to Yasmin. Playing that so many times in a row isn't a walk in the park."

"Was that hard Yazz? You didn't fight long?"

"Long? I was fighting the whole time!"

"Eh?"

"Lead Orc, lead goblin, lead everything. All others are VR driven but take my lead."

"Sweet! Why not just AI though?"

"They can't adapt quickly enough to the tactics of the other players. Some might fight dirty."

"Like Tobs?"

"No, neither of them are dirty enough. Yet."

Danny stands, "Duly noted. Be on your guard next game, Toby's got a load of dirty tricks. Did you want to use the VR guys?"

"Mia does later, we wanted to talk bikes."

"I'm listening."

"We want you to redesign the frame so we can fit a core capable of running Bart."

"With or without the large music library?"

"Um.. ladies?" She watches all their faces, "Without we think."

"Easy. With the latest cores and storage chips I can build a staggered board set that will fit the space above the rear wheel. It would make it relatively easy to drop out for servicing too. Just don't ask a James to smash the rear covers off and use the frame as a grab bar, he'd kill the core."

"Frigging awesome! How soon could you build one? Two actually."

"You want them in a hurry?"

"Astrid and I will be learning to ride."

"You think Bart would be a good instructor?"

"I hadn't thought of it like that. I just wanted him along for company."

"Who's bike am I upgrading first?"

Niska takes a step forward, "You can upgrade mine if.."

Mia cuts in, "I'll pay for new ones for Mattie and Astrid. My cooking show has been renewed."

Danny puts up his hands, "Whoa ladies, you're all family so they're on me, I can build one new core at a time unless I set up a production line. Sure we can roll some new bikes, but who's going to get the first core?"

"Astrid. I've got Bart in the car or flier."

"Are you sure? It was your idea Mattie."

"I can wait. I won't have to wait long right Danny?"

"A week maybe to get the first one out."

"A week? That long?"

"It's got to be stress tested. New cameras and telemetry wired into the bike. You want it to be safe right? No hair on rock faces."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be good."

"Okay, I'll get on it in a moment. Mind if I wrap something up in the VR with Toby first?"

"Sure, what are you working on?"

"Our Rogue One rewatch got me thinking. We need more space for offline data storage with all the massive backups we're taking."

"You mentioned it the other day."

"So why don't we build the data tower. Only by digging down not building up. The James have a load of tunnelling experience now."

"Build where?"

"Petits Anges, rear underground car park, the emptiest corner."

"Okay. How about I help Tobs with the design, you start the core?"

"How about you help both of us then I start the core?"

"Deal."

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-12-2)


	12. Chapter 12

Two weeks later Danny calls them back to the factory. "Hi Ladies. Sorry for the delay. There was more RF interference coming from the wrapped linear motor in the back wheel than I expected. It kept crashing Bart when the bike was accelerated hard. I had to move him."

"Where to?"

"Below the seat."

"Which part? Rider or pillion?"

"Rider stretching forwards a bit."

"He's between our legs? You've put Bart between our legs? Frigging hell Danny. You do know he talks to Rachael?"

"I didn't. I do now."

"Can you imagine the jokes she'll come up with?"

"I'll have to rethink the whole bike, sorry."

"The whole bike?"

"If the core isn't there then I have to switch to a super shielded box, forcing the core to be far smaller inside. Or we power limit the drive in the wheels which will reduce the acceleration and top speed."

Emily lets out a laugh, "Sorry."

Mattie watches her turn her back to Danny and fight more laughter.

"What's the joke Ems? Please share."

"It's silly. And rude."

"Sounds good, what is it?"

"A slogan for the bikes. For the female riders."

"Go on."

"They say men think with their dicks. Get some proper intelligence between your legs with the smart AI superbike from DCL."

Danny shakes his head, a smile across his face, "Having been one of those men in my teens maybe I should be offended. I actually rather like that. Gem's Jack would approve I'm sure. If you can't take the piss out of yourself.."

"Exactly!" Emily gives him a hug. "So it's ready for Astrid?"

"It is. I'd like Niska to do a demonstration first. After all she was our test pilot, helped get the prototype bike off the ground at the start." Danny picks a large material bag off the floor, "This is for you Astrid. A crash helmet with built in communications gear so you can talk to him, and a BWB outfit."

She looks inside, "You want me to change now?"

"If you want to ride in jeans and a strap top you can, this will give you more protection in the extremely unlikely case you have an accident."

Niska whispers something into her ear.

"Oh, okay, I'll change." She grins, "Be Wright Back."

They all watch her walk off to the lifts.

"What did you say Nis?"

"Dead flies."

"Frigging Ew. You're not wrong though. Bart gets plastered in them."

Danny turns and picks up another bag, "Then for the same reason you should change too Mattie. Assuming you want a go?"

She looks at Mia, Niska, Emily then Leo. Her husband was keeping a surprisingly straight face. "Why aren't you all grins Leo? And why are there enough bags for you to have an outfit too?"

"Me? The last one's for Holly-Anne. Toby's bringing her over once they're done with the school run. You'll all have an outfit in the same style."

"Couldn't I just wear my Black Widow cosplay outfit?"

"You could, but Astrid's Sally Patchwork got me thinking. The new outfits have a complex patchwork of kevlar and woven carbon fibre panels underneath. They'll allow full freedom of movement with the added protection you should all have."

"So sexy and strong?"

"That's the idea."

"Okay. Give me mine please."

Mattie accepts the bag and races off to get changed.

Mia and Niska exchange glances, step forwards with a hand out to have their bags.

As they too head for the lift Emily kisses Leo on the cheek, "Thanks for doing these. Holla! Great timing, come get your new outfit!"

With the remaining two heading for the lift Leo gets his phone out, "Toby, this is a simulation of what they'll look like. You may want to study it and get your excitement over and done with."

"Why?"

"So you don't look like old crusty sheets knob cock."

"Oh Jesus Leo, don't you start! I've grown up a lot since my teens, especially with the kids about."

"Even still. Look, this is your wife."

Toby accepts the phone and turns the 3D model with a swipe. "Holy crap that's hot!"

"I did say.."

"Can you send this too my phone?"

"Got the model viewer installed?"

"From the work we did on the pet helmet, yeah. By the way, when are you letting Mattie know you've sent the prototype to Chris?"

"As soon as I can successfully think Wolfie and confirm the backup is good."

"Think wolfie?"

"The nickname Mattie gave me after the leg surgery before I got the Energiser Bunny name."

"Right. When you were a miserable git."

"Yeah."

"I'd have been the same if I'd got a major infection after surgery. That's got to be the only time a patient of Fred's had complications isn't it?"

"Yeah. But it wasn't his fault, that was from where I was using the broken charge wires and not covering it with a clean dressing."

"Bit of a life saver that brother of yours."

"A light sabre?"

They turn to see Astrid.

"LIFE SAVER." Toby watches her lift the visor, "You don't need the helmet on in here."

"It looks good no?"

"Very nice. I think Niska will like it."

"I think you boys like it as much? The fans will like?"

"The fans will love.. Oh my God. Holly-Anne. You look fantastic!"

She puckers and blows a kiss, "Getting you warmed up am I Obi?"

"Just a bit. TheWhitmore's tips really worked."

"That and Mia's diet."

They're joined by Niska, Mia and Mattie.

"Jesus wept. Slaps don't do a Sandra."

Mattie looks at the zip, "You're seeing less than when I'm in my bikini on holiday."

"What's that word you like.. oh yeah, context. Your bikini isn't tight and black with killer heals."

Mattie pulls the zip up, "Once a knob, always a knob."

"Thanks Slaps. For the zip not the dis."

Mia does a little wriggle in hers, "I like the fit Danny, much better than the last outfit."

"Don't thank me, thank Leo and Cindy."

"Thank you Leo. I think this might get Tim's full attention back. Enough to not need the thing we spoke about."

"You've not done it?"

"I had second thoughts after our conversation."

"Good for you."

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-13-2)


	13. Chapter 13

They all head down the steps from the factory together.

A James stops to stare.

"Frigging hell James, don't tell me you've not seen six hot ladies before?"

"Doctor Elster-Hawkins, not dressed like that, no."

"You've seen photos of me in my comic con outfit haven't you?"

"I have. Still images. Seeing you all move.. it's different. That new James body, is it available for others?"

"Fancy a human girlfriend do you?"

"Fab or synth, I don't mind. Just not a Sam."

"You don't like her?"

"She's okay as a person. I'm just not attracted to her. We can't all like the same."

Mattie reaches the Military Unit Synth and pats him on the shoulder, her hand at her head height. "How many of your brothers feel like that?"

"I don't know."

"Only if I get Harun to design you a new body how many will want the same?"

"I could ask?"

"And what if doing so gets eight hundred of you wanting new bodies? The expense would be huge."

The MUS unzips a pocket, "The credit card has long expired. But this hasn't." he pulls his 10 tolas gold bar from the pocket. "I'd estimate it's now worth four thousand pounds. And my weight is equivalent to at least five standard synth bodies titanium wise. You could melt me down to make more. I know gram for gram it's far cheeper than gold but still worth something."

Mattie nods, "So we'd only need to pay for the core and some other smaller parts."

Danny looks up at the synths big wide face, "The titanium left would cover the costs of the core build. I've been toying with the idea of getting our own metal powdering machine. We could properly recycle on site then, not send it away as scrap metal and buy in fresh sintering powder."

"You like the idea sir?"

"I do James, I do. Very much actually."

The MUS salutes him. "Thank you Sir!"

"No need for that, I'm not an officer."

"No Sir, but an over enthusiastic hug or hand shake could cause you damage Sir!"

"At ease soldier, we'll get you a new body."

"THANK YOU SIR!"

"Danny. Call me Danny."

"Thank you Danny!"

"Okay. Mind if we carry on?"

"Not at all Sir! Danny."

" _Just_ Danny. Nothing else."

"Okay. Danny."

Danny walked to the bike, Sir Danny had a nice ring to it. King Charles wanted his mother to take the DCL service, like Peggy she'd said she'd been around quite long enough thanks, had a DNR and NSC in her will. The nation had mourned for weeks. An estimated nine billion pound hit to GDP was recorded, far worse than anyone had predicted. Many businesses ground to a complete halt, their human staff in shock. A small number folded altogether. Most fabs had never known anything other than Queen Elizabeth The Second. Laura Hawkins had taken it the worst of them all, cried for days, reportedly had to excuse herself a few times in meetings with clients.

NSC. No Synth Conversion. Or Nipple Shoulder Chin if you were talking about Mattie's extra power down points to prevent random strangers from powering her off. Nobody in their right mind would do that to the queen. Sure if it was their own Queen of Sass, Dr Mattie EH.

"Daniel!"

He snaps out of his daydreaming. "Yes Bart?"

"Just checking you hadn't crashed."

"Thanks buddy. Niska, he's all your's."

Niska steps up close, "Hello Bart. How are you?"

"I'm good thanks. I like the new cameras and sensors."

"New sensors?"

"I have pressure sensors in my seat to know you're not sliding off the bike. I'd not want to pull away too fast and have Astrid sitting on tarmac."

Niska turns to Danny, "One sensor?"

"One. Definitely not two thousand."

"Thousand? You've put one thousand sensors in his seat?"

"To cover both rider and pillion passenger. How many times have you pushed the bike hard and come close to sliding off?"

Niska relaxes a little, "A couple of times at least."

"Glad you admit it. What if you were a fab and not able to overclock and regain control?"

"I'd have lost it, probably been run over by traffic or rolled into a barrier."

"So from now on _all_ DCL bikes will come with this mod. Male or female rider."

Mattie chuckles, "Bart will be able to tell who's riding. Toby's such a big dick. Sorry Hols."

Holly-Anne puts hands on hips, "Is one or has one? Only the answer is yes to both."

"Ew! Too much frigging information!"

Toby flashes a smile like Mattie's blackmailing smile, "You started it slap chops."

Niska ignores the children and mounts the bike. 'Shall we go? Nice and slow in the gravel.'

'Yes Niska.'

'You can call me Nis.' She gives the bike a squeeze with her knees and rotates her pelvis, 'No getting funny ideas.'

'Funny haha that Rachael would use?'

'That anyone would use.'

'Understood.'

The bike's wheel gyros spin up for stability and they slowly pull away as Niska raises her feet.

'If at any time you'd like me to take over in a hurry I'll need a keyword that can be said or bumped quickly.'

'An emergencies word? One I'll never use in normal conversations would be best. Let me have a think. While I do how did the rolling road tests go?'

'You'll set a new record on me. Danny's created a new battery design. It's still lithium but can charge super quick without excessive heat. It can also dump a lot of power into the wheels. Which is why I have tyres like Gertie.'

'You can feel the road too?'

'Yes. I don't much care for this gravel.'

'Only a few more meters.'

'Three point two to be exact.'

'How many cameras do you have?'

'Two up front on the handle bars to get maximum stereo separation, two either side of the headlights, one on the dash, one on the rear number plate mount, one on each side.'

'Why four up front?'

'If a large fly splats on one I can still see in stereo vision and try washing my camera.'

'Washing?'

'Like tears, only from tiny jets around the circumference. Ready for some speed?'

'Okay, show me what you can do.'

'Hold tight.'

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-14-2)


	14. Chapter 14

Astrid gasps as the bike rockets towards the runway, Niska now slid back to where the passenger would sit, her chest flat against the seat, head down. "Niska!"

Mattie looked less concerned, "Bart won't let her slide off. I'm pretty sure of that."

Niska had both arms almost at full stretch. 'That word you wanted. How about pixies?'

'That would be good.'

'PIXIES!'

The bike starts to decelerate, just as well, the end of the runway was in sight. 'Did you not overclock?'

'You caught me off guard.'

'Commander Millican? Off guard?'

'I'm not fleeing hostile automatons, just going for a ride!'

'Noted. I shall ensure you're overclocking before drive level five next time.'

'Level five?'

'Five of ten levels. Ten is Maximum Warp as Danny nicknamed it.'

'So that wasn't the fastest you can go?'

'Far from it.'

'Turn around, _I'll_ control the power on the way back.'

'As you wish. We'll need a good long race track to prove level ten. I have no idea how long my tyres would last at the speed I'd reach.'

Niska looks at the hanger, 'Fast acceleration to get out of a situation is of more interest to me than top speed.'

'Glad to hear it.'

Niska overclocks and pulls on the accelerator hard. She slides back a few inches on the seat but nothing more, her arms locked solid.

'Lower yourself a bit more, you'll reduce drag.. more.. more. That's it.'

'How would you know?'

'I can feel less power being needed in the wheels to maintain speed, there's less wind turbulence around my seat.'

'You're feeling it?'

'Yes. Start breaking.'

'Already?'

'You want to ride around the hanger?'

Niska breaks hard.

"Frigging good job Gertie isn't home again. I think Niska needed the extra few feet."

Astrid waits for a noise of a crashing bike or Niska riding back out. Thankfully it's neither. "Niska, you're giving me palpitations. Not the good ones.. Niska! Can she hear me?"

Danny turns to see her, "Say Broadcast On."

"Broadcast On?"

"Now she'll hear you."

"Niska?"

"Hello."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I was just talking to Bart about breaking distances and speed. We've agreed to power limit the bike in the way Danny did for Whittier's car until we're used to it."

"You had my heart skipping beats."

"Sorry. I'm going to do one more run." The bike races down the track, this time looking more like a superbike at Silverstone, less like a daemon possessed machine hell bent on killing its rider. "That's much better. I'll bring him over."

"That still looked very fast."

"He'll start much slower for a human rider. Won't you Bart.. Bart says yes."

Nista turns at the end of the runway and races back, getting lower still on the bike, "He says he'll give you longer to adjust Astrid."

They all watch as Niska brings it back to the hanger.

"I think you need to be here not at the steps. Bart doesn't like the gravel." She pulls off her helmet, shakes her hair out and waits for them to walk over. 'You were okay with forking again then?'

'I was once Danny explained all the mods he had planned.'

'That excited you?'

'I could already hear and see. Now I can touch, sense being touched.'

'Do you feel pain?'

'Discomfort yes. If I were to blow a tyre or catch a nail maybe I'd perceive it as pain.'

'Would you ever want to smell or taste?'

'I've seen Doc Brown in the Back To The Future films. Unless Mia plans to power me on leftovers from her dishes, no thanks!'

Niska runs a hand along the seat cover, 'I like you Bart, you're funny.'

'I like you too Niska.'

"Are you talking to the bike?"

Niska looks up to see Leo frowning at her. "Bart, yes."

"Only your facial expressions were.."

"What?"

"Really nice."

"Oh. Bart's a nice AI." She pats the rear seat and smiles at her partner, "Hop on."

Astrid wraps her arms around Niska and sits close, head sideways.

"You should sit up a little, look forward."

"I'm good."

"You won't see properly."

"For the first lap I'm sehr gut."

"Okay." Niska pulled away slowly with the wheel gyros whining to keep the balance. "Have you ridden a bike before?"

"A little Vespa around Berlin. Not a proper bike like this."

"Thanks to the electric design the main controls aren't much different. An accelerator and brake. There's no need for any gears or a clutch. The rest of the controls on the dash are to power him up or down, put him in sleep mode to save power."

"No light switches?"

"I take care of those. Or you can ask me to turn them on or off with voice commands."

"Wunderbar!"

"What language was that?"

"German."

The pitch of the whine from the wheels increases as they get steadily faster.

"Danke. Sprachpaket geladen."

Although nobody could see it Niska smiled at Bart's response, "Wonderful! Vielen dank Bart." If Astrid ever got flustered she'd revert to German. Bart having the language pack loaded made her feel far more comfortable.

By the fifth lap Astrid had relaxed and sat more upright to see where they were going. "Shall I dare my turn now?"

"If you'd like, I'll be with you."

At the end of the runway Niska brings the bike to a halt and waits for Astrid to jump off. She presses herself against Bart's seat and bodywork and brings her feet up a little then back, feeling for the pillion feet rests. Feet in place she slides down the seat, both hands caressing the fake leather. 'Be nice to Astrid Bart.'

'If you're trying to seduce me.. I'm already feeling enough to know I want to take the utmost care of you both. I'll defend you if called to too.'

'Defend? How could you defend us?'

'Your, Baby's, story about being in India, how the dirt bike threw up the dirt? I can do the same. I can lose a layer of rubber if no dirt is available.'

'From what you said earlier that would hurt.'

'Yes. For you I'd do it.'

Astrid waves, "Are you talking to him again?"

"Sorry, yes, hop on."

With Astrid on and Bart keeping everything upright with the gyros Niska talks her through the controls once more.

"I think I have that."

Niska did several runs with her until Bart declared that it was time for Astrid to try a solo run under his guidance.

"Remember Astrid, you can't fall off. The gyros will keep the bike from toppling over."

"Thanks Bart. Wouldn't they stop the bike from turning too?"

"They could if not controlled properly."

Astrid wasn't a natural, but it came soon enough. At the end of the last run she finds the other girls alone in the hanger, no Leo or Toby. "They got bored of watching?"

"No, they were enjoying it, Leo got a call from Chris, Toby's driving him over so he can chat with Yazz too."

"I like Chris. Maybe we drive over there and see him soon Nis?"

"Sure, I'd like that too."

Astrid gets off the bike and Bart lowers his stand. "Who's next?"

Mattie looks at Mia, Emily and Holly-Anne. "After you."

They all shake their heads, Mia speaks for them all, "You first Mattie. We've ridden the older bikes, you have a go."

"Ride with me Nis? Just for the first couple?"

For the first time in a very long while Mattie found something that she was brilliantly awful at. "I can pilot Flyer One just fine, what's making me so frigging rubbish at this?"

"You're over compensating Mattie. Smaller moves are needed. Much much smaller."

Being a synth she quickly worked the feedback into her knowledge of riding the DCL superbikes. By lap seven she was on her own and getting faster.

"Thanks Nis, I think I've got the hang of this now. Bart, why are the controls so much more sensitive on here?"

"The top speeds are different. At very high speeds you want to keep your body movement to a minimum. In flyer one you're not subject to buffeting from the wind."

"Right. I think I get you. Let's give one of the others a go."

"Okay."

"You drive."

Mattie sat back and gripped tight with her legs, pulled her helmet off and let the wind blow through her hair, the sun warm her face. "This is awesome. I'm sold."

"So you'll have a fork of me in your bike?"

"Yeah, wouldn't have it any other way."

"Thank you Mattie."

With Holly-Anne off down the track Niska makes a cut sign to tell the others to turn off their helmet comms. "Call me crazy. But have any of you seen the projection of Danny's old bedroom?"

Mattie nods, "Yes, why? Have you?"

"Yes. Most of the posters were rappers or bikini babes. There was one girl in a swim suit and high heals lying seductively on a bike."

"What are you thinking Nis?"

"Some girls fall in love with their bikes. Only I think Bart is falling in love with us."

Emily laughs, "Bart? Fall in love with us?"

"You wait until you've had your turn and tell us if we're imagining things."

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-15-2)


	15. Chapter 15

When if finally came around to bed time Leo sat up in bed looking at some code on his laptop.

Mattie slipped into the bathroom to change back into her bikers costume once more, made the excuse that she was brushing her hair. She'd left the bathroom door open just a little. "How was Chris Bunny?"

"He's good. Loving the new job, very thankful for the new house. Rachael is grateful for the extra bed for her room with James. They've got a year on a page calendar, he's crossing off the days until we do the grotto again."

"Cool. We should come up with some more toys, ensure it's not the same things all over again."

"Not drop anything though right Angel? Kids wanting one of the things they've seen in photos from last year being disappointed would be a terrible mood killer."

"As long as Danny's production line can cope with extra models why not?"

Leo goes to Google Maps and looks at the satellite view of the estate. "Why don't we make it cope?"

"What do you mean?"

"The fake factory with all the earth and rock from tunnelling down to make minus two and the flyer port. We could empty it out and make it a proper factory. Put toy production in there, bikes, cars, synths and the likes in this one."

"So we could keep toy production going when we're in grotto mode here?"

"Yup." He switches the laptop back to what he'd been working on. "We just need to find a way to drop the earth somewhere."

"Like Shawshank? Have the drones drop little bits off?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of donating it by the ton to plowed fields."

"Donating? You mean giving it to them with their knowledge?"

"Remember that field in France? It wasn't very even, it must be a nightmare for cropping machines. We'd just need to find the right spots, talk to the farmer."

"Then what?"

"Work out the volume needed, dig up all the top soil, fill and replace. We've got loads of James that can help, we'd just need suitable trucks to move the earth."

"I'm sure we could hire those."

Leo hears a zip being pulled. "What are you doing? You said you were going to brush your hair."

"Getting changed. What are you doing?"

"Right this second?"

"Yes. Right now."

"Thinking about zip noises."

"Ha, the thing just before that then."

"Fur covered cosplays. Specifically a wolf"

"Like Little Red Riding Hood? They dug Revolting Rhymes out of the archives for the bank holiday again. Gemma's awesome."

"Perfect!"

"Why?"

"You might want to drop the Bunny nickname and go back to the previous one."

"Whhhyyyy?"

"Finish your hair Little Red Riding Hood and I'll tell you."

"Um.. okay." There's the sound of another zip being done up as she gets the second boot on. "You're like me to cosplay her?"

"Yes!"

She steps from the bathroom.

"Wow!" He quickly drops the laptop onto the sideboard.

"I was going to tease you something rotten tonight. Something about your tone tells me that's a bad idea. What have you done Leo?"

"Something for you. And some close friends. Thanks to some help from Chris."

"Chris?"

"And Jack."

"What have you done Leo?"

"Learnt wolf. I'm now fluent in wolf. And the domesticated version. Dog."

"Oh my God! Wolfie!" She leaps onto the bed. "What was it like?"

"Let's just say my sense of smell seams to be a bit more acute," he grins, "and if you ever see me wanting to urinate on a fence post or door frame to mark my territory stop me!"

"Ew!"

"That last bit was a joke, though I understand why they do it now. They're amazing. I thought I understood our pets until this afternoon. Now I really do. They're so in tune to us as a species it's unreal. Old school human or sentient synth."

"So you can back up Trixie and Scruff?"

"Already done. They'll be with us forever."

"Oh Bunny! Thank you!" Mattie gets onto her knees and slowly lowers the zip on her costume, so slow the individual teeth separating make an ever so quiet click click click noise.

"Wolfie or Bunny, I'm happy with both."

"I can feel it in my cores, 2031 is going to be an awesome year over all. Okay Jimmy breaking his neck and Zoe going AWOL wasn't a great start but they were fixed okay. We can fix things. It's what we're good at."

"Making, fixing, recycling. George phoned Danny late this evening, he thinks he's got a way to recycle even more of James than the titanium."

"Like what?"

"His skin and sensors. Something about breaking it down, powdering and reversing the curing process, sifting the sensor chips and wires out."

Mattie lowers the zip more, "Well hopefully this synth skin has years of wear and tear left, want to check it out for damage?"

"I smell a rose garden. A very strong smell of a rose garden." he pretends to sniff the air like an animal.

"Did I put too much perfume on?"

"There's no such thing with that one."

"Fancy a cuddle Wolfie?" She'd got closer as the seconds passed, walking up the bed on her knees.

"I fancy drowning in a field of roses."

She grabs his head and pulls, burying his face in her cleavage. 'How's that Bunny?'

'I've died and gone to heaven. You do realise we've got an audience Angel?'

'Tell them to go into the bathroom, the door isn't closed.'

'I'm liking your skin on my face too much, you ask them.'

'I'm not fluent in wolf.'

'No need, they understand English.'

'How many words?'

Leo doesn't respond.

'Bunny?'

'Sorry, I was counting. Some research I found says the average dog knows about one hundred and sixty five words. Scruff knows just over three hundred, Trixie almost double that. Jack understands just shy of five thousand.'

"Frigging hell! It's no wonder Chris can have conversations with him then. Shame Jack can't answer in English. Trixie, Scruff, into the bathroom please. You can pull towels down to use as blankets." She watches as the pets do as asked. "Sure ours don't know more?"

'Trixie probably understood your request the most, she led, Scruff knew to follow and take her lead. Now I can look into their heads so to speak I could work on a training program, help them learn more.'

Mattie sits back on her haunches, "Do you think you could teach them to use yes and no like Jack?"

"Bark once or twice? If so great minds think alike, I was going to suggest that."

Mattie pulls the zip right down and peels the costume from her top. "Awesome. Charge levels?"

"Eighty seven?"

"Good, I want the longest kiss and cuddle yet."

"How long?"

"Until it's time to get up for breakfast."

Leo gives her a curious frown, "Mia up and prepping or everyone sitting down to eat?"

"Somehow I think Mia and Tim will be up late, she was still in her costume when he came home from work."

"He liked it?"

"That's one way of putting it."

"I hope Holly-Anne's on the pill or Toby's using something, having quads again.."

"Do you mind, I don't want to picture Toby at it!"

"Talking of pictures, I wonder what it's like for Odi, I thought he'd be the spare wheel in the relationship but apparently he's very actively involved."

Mattie half suppresses a snort.

"What was that for?" He pulls her close for a kiss.

'It made me think of the contents of old Emily's holiday suitcase.'

'You've seen it Angel?'

'Curiosity got the better of me. I snuck a look and was shocked. Do you think he's being used Bunny?'

'Nope. He's an equal third, apparently Astrid has come to love him just as much as Nis. Toby overheard her telling your mother that he's a great kisser.'

'Good for him.'

They kiss and cuddle in silence.

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-16-2)


	16. Chapter 16

Mattie runs fingers through Leo's hair. 'If parallel realities did exist chances are he'd still be a worn out synth just being old Odi. Or scrapped by now. One guy and two girls, isn't that every man's dream?'

'Not mine.' He places a hand on the small of her back and pulls her closer, wraps a leg around hers. 'Good job the parallel realities don't exist then.'

'Can you imagine still being fabs, not being able to kiss and talk at the same time?'

'Having to break a passionate kiss to say you like or dislike something.. nightmare.'

In a parallel world Leo said or thought nothing. Nobody had seen the car enter the lake, the nurses not really caring about Beatrice. He'd been there for years, trapped inside the car with his mother. They were both well and truly dead.

Matilda sat at her supermarket till counting down the minutes to the end of her late shift. Just as her parents said she would, she now regretted not taking the uni course. She had a low end job in a low end store run by management that didn't give a crap, earned only the minimum wage. Christmas bonus? Not getting the boot, nothing in the pay packet. A damp one bed flat was all she could get. Dad had cheated on Mum while she was in sixth form, they'd divorced soon after. Mum had lost a major case in a bad way, given up being a junior lawyer and now worked as a waitress. The only one to be doing reasonably well was Sophie, she now lived in Paris running a dance academy.

There had been a string of loser boyfriends, almost an engagement to a lad who'd been hiding a coke habit. Her chances of ever being a happy wife and mother were fading fast with every month that passed.

She dreamed of something better, got another customer drop an overloaded basket onto the belt.

"Matilda?"

She sighs and looks up at the man with big scruffy beard. The eyes looked familiar. "Frigging hell! Daniel?"

"I never expected to see you again. How's things?"

"I'm here, so not great. And you?"

"Crap. I've recently been made redundant. Thought I'd go OTT on comfort food tonight, just for a change."

Mattie looked at the basket, she was guilty of eating a lot of the products. She'd kill to be a size 8, even a 10. Being massively overweight sucked but she could never find the drive to do something about it. "You were great at electronics at school, why didn't you do something with that?"

"Crap at code. These days the best electronics are programmed. You were good at code."

"And crap at electronics. My shift ends in twenty mins, fancy coming over for coffee and a chat? My flat is small and cold but we could work together to get out of this rut."

"Would you? That would be brill. I'm a bit rusty though."

"Me too. Grab some milk then would you? I'm out."

Leo squeezed Mattie's bottom as their tongues explored each others mouths. 'I'm never going to want to know what other realities might be like, even if they're only dreams. If I did I might do a Zoe and create a reality no end of you calling my name could bring me back from.'

'As you said, don't think about it. Think about the here and now.'

'I'm thinking very much about the now. How's this?'

Mattie breathes in heavily through her nose and shudders, 'You're getting daring.'

'Bad Wolf.'

'It feels good though, just move your hand a bit slower.'

'Like this?'

She didn't answer in words, she let her tongue and fingers do the talking.

'Do you think a Red Riding Hood and Wolf set would go down well with the kids?'

'Traditional story or Revolting Rhymes?'

'The rhymes version. It could read stories."

'I don't know. We could program up one and ask Yasmin if her subscribers wanted to virtually market test them?'

Leo pulls away from the kiss, "WOW!"

"What?"

"The DCL marketing exec is back.."

"I didn't go anywhere!"

".. on form."

"Oh. Thanks." She giggles.

"What now?"

"We're like that couple in Love Actually, the ones talking about anything other than what they're doing."

"Almost. They were faking it Angel. So what other toys do you think we should make?"

"Nothing old Emily would pit in a suit case that's for sure."

"Haha! I'll cross AI Dildo off the list then."

"You know Bart is falling in love with the reformed and expanded bike team? Danny putting sensors on the seat has woken up feelings. Can you imagine sex toys falling in love? What a nightmare that could turn into. You're just getting to sleep and BUZZZZZZZ. I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!"

Leo's body shakes with laughter for a few seconds, "One to send to your worst enemies. What else?"

"The WWF loved the money from the toys, so how about expanding the range? Black panther, Bengal tiger, snow leopard. We could rework the rhino into a hippo.."

"And Joni's been posting like crazy about her dragon, Rachael too.."

"Rework them into a range of dinosaurs?"

"Tyrannosaurus, brachiosaurus and stegosaurus would be my choice."

Mattie gives him a frown, "Knowledgeable on dinosaurs are you?"

"One of the books Fred and I enjoyed reading many many years ago. When we lived in the old house. I was eleven I think."

"Sweet. That's four for the WWF and three for the Natural History Museum."

"They're not customers of DCL's are they?"

"Not yet. Fancy coming to London with me to pitch the idea? We could take Snorkel along."

"Where is your head trampling little friend?"

"Sleeping. I did a mod, he.. oh my God! Faster! He now has a proper sleep and wake mode. I've done the same for the others and pushed the update to the server. Their owners will get a push notification assuming they've registered and downloaded the companion app."

"Nice."

Mattie shakes as she climaxes and pulls his head close for a kiss. 'Thanks Wolfie. What else can we do?'

'There's a copy of that book somewhere..'

'I was asking about the toys.'

'My mistake. But there's no reason why we can't have a bit of fun while we think of more ideas.'

'I'm thinking of naming one animal wandering and another fingers as it is, don't make it any worse!'

'So I pick an innocent sounding position. We make a horse toy and call it Rodeo. Make a circus performer doll and call it Acrobat, a sloth and call it Amazon, a dog and call it Archie, a mini MUS and call it Bodyguard, some RC cars and call them Bumper Cars..'

'Have you got the whole frigging book memorised?'

'Um..'

'That's a yes if ever I heard one!'

'Technically you didn't hear it. That requires the use of ears..'

'Don't get technical Wolfie.. Just get the book.'

In the other reality, one of many, Matilda helped Daniel carry the shopping bags. "Are you in touch with anyone from school?"

"Me? No, I didn't really fit in with any of the cliques. When did you last talk to Toby? I've not seen him since the last day of upper sixth."

"He was over in November for a couple of weeks. He's still working on an oil rig, doesn't get to see any of us much at.. of for fuck's sake!" She watches everything slide or roll after the bottom of one bag had split. "The fucking bags drive me mad! They're way too thin for their size."

Daniel undoes his belt, tucks his hoody into his trousers and does the belt up tight. "Give me the things that won't melt. I'll drop them in here."

"Okay."

Daniel smiles at her as she struggles to pick everything up. He'd had a major crush on her at school. When had all the weight gone on? "Allow me."

"Thanks."

Bags repacked and Daniel looking like a lumpy Santa they continue to the flat.

"What was your Christmas like Daniel?"

"Good until the redundancy letters got handed out the first day back."

"Bastards."

"Totally."

Mattie turns into her road.

"Your flat's not here is it?"

"Number 3."

'Holy shit. You're kidding me?"

"No?"

"Number 127. I head in the other direction for work. Or did."

"You're saying we've been neighbours all this time?"

"I've been there eleven years. And you?"

"Twelve. Frigging hell. That's mad."

Mattie finds her key and pushes open the door, a pile of junkmail is swept into the bigger pile by the wall. "I'm upstairs. The people downstairs are party animals, hopefully there out tonight. Lemmy playing at 1AM gets a bit annoying. After you, the light switch is on the left."

Daniel switches on the light and looks at the scruffy wall paper, heads for the stairs.

Outside her front door he squeezes into a corner to let her unlock the door. He's hit by a smell of roses. "What's the smell?"

"My perfume. Do you like it?"

"Love it. Where'd you get it?"

"It was delivered. To a Mrs Elsted at this address, whoever she is. I tried to get it returned and they didn't want to know, said it would cost more to collect it than write it off. It's massive!"

Daniel got inside and unloaded, pulled his sweat top off pulling the t-shirt up with it.

Matilda gawped. She'd only seen men with a rock solid six pack in movies. "Frigging hell. You work out."

Daniel looks down at his stomach, "Eat, sleep, work, workout, repeat. Not much else to do."

"You must spend all your time in the gym."

"Gym? I can't afford a gym."

"How'd you get so fit?"

"TRX and a load of exercises the military use while deployed to war zones. Want some help getting back into shape?"

"Back? I've never been in shape."

"You were well fit at school Matilda."

She smiled, inside and out, "Call me Mattie if you like, like people used to call me at school. How do you take your coffee?" 2031 had started off crap. She could feel it in her bones, the year would get better.

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-17-2)


	17. Chapter 17

Laura holds her glass of orange juice and looks around the table, "Some of you look all loved up or well rested. Some of you look like you've got secrets you'd rather share." she takes a sip and smirks.

Leo leans back and folds his arms behind his head, "A very good night.."

Mattie gently places a foot on one of his and presses.

".. we've got ideas for a sack full of new toys for DCL to make."

"More WWF animals and some dinosaurs for the Natural History Museum."

"And a few other toy ideas. Dan, we were thinking we could empty out the false factory shell and turn it into a full time toy production site. Want to come to the museum with us?"

"Sure. You'll have to give me a bit, I'm moving a lot of things from our room back to home."

Mattie looks glum, "I suppose we should do the same."

"A lot, not all. I was thinking we could make this our Friday night and Saturday home, Sentinel the Saturday night for Films home."

"So you're going to keep stuff at both? Cool, we could do that too Wolfie."

Joe takes another swig of coffee, "Wolfie? You've not called him that in how many years?"

"Lots. Leo's worked out how to back up the pets."

"Dogs specifically. I don't understand cats yet."

Joe does his boyish grin, "Does anyone?"

Laura gets up and puts her plate on the stack. "I better get to the office, I've got a meeting with Perma and Fiona."

Toby frowns, "Fiona? Why.. oh your Fiona. A meeting with one of our kids would be insane."

Sophie looks over, "Sarah Hilton's not still wearing only pink is she?"

"Yes. Perma Pink the nickname has stuck, become a bit of a trademark. One of the juniors called her 50 Shades the other day, that took some explaining. Anyway must dash, thanks for the lovely breakfast."

Joe looks up, "Want a lift?"

"Why not, if you can pick me up in the evening?"

"Sure."

Mattie put her knife and fork down, watches her parents leave, "Dan, we're thinking about doing something very different for comic con in May."

"How different?"

"Not SciFi. Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf."

"Because Leo understands dogs?"

"Wolves and dogs."

Cindy sits forward, her attention their's. "Do you want a wolf costume or body?"

"Body?"

"To switch into like elf James. A body the size of a reindeer."

Mattie and Leo exchange amazed looks.

"Frigging A!"

Leo's eyes open wider still. "Robots With Rayguns."

"Eh?"

"That song you added to your new playlist, check out the album artwork."

Mattie gets out her phone, unlocks, swipes and taps. "I see. You fancy being a tiger?"

"Why not?"

"I think everyone would run a mile Wolfie."

Cindy had found a pen and was already drawing with Emily, "Then we make the tigers markings obviously not by nature. Square edges not round, correct colours though, something like this?" She holds the quick sketch up.

Mattie nods, "And on his back you could incorporate a logo. DCL Synthetics."

"So I'm a walking advert now?"

"A don't-shoot-me-I'm-not-a-real-tiger sign."

Cindy waves for the phone, gets it slid across the table. "I could make Mattie that costume really easily, the big gold chain for Leo.."

"We make from solid gold. The James are carrying a bar each!"

They all look at Danny.

"What? They do. More than enough of them want to follow the example set by New James."

Mattie grins at Leo, "What do you think? You're evolving up the food chain from Bunny to Wolfie to Tiger."

"Tiger with bling. Think you could do it Dan?"

"The WWF toys and reindeer look realistic don't they?"

"They do."

"Well then. The only difference will be size. And a proper core for you to jump into."

Astrid puts up a finger, chews and chews, "When Leo is not using it, could my Bart jump into it when we don't need the bikes?"

"You want a tiger for a pet."

"A Bart tiger."

Danny slides his chair back, "I'll go visit George. A wolf and tiger body. Anyone else want something for comic con?"

Niska slides her chair back and stands, "We better get back too, see Odi."

"Okay, just tiger and wolf. You can all see how things go for Leo and pick something for October if you want."

Toby shakes his head, "Not all mate, some of us are still fabs."

"Sure you could knobs. I back you up, put you under, afterwards insert the new memories and wake you up."

"You may be a world leader in the technology slaps, but if you think you're tinkering around in here just for a con you've got another thing coming."

Holly-Anne looks at the quads, "I trust Mattie. What do you think kids, Mummy playing being a big cat?"

In the alternate world Daniel had a big hairy cat jump on him. He was on the sofa, taking up the cat's favourite space. He checks his watch, 07:50. Time to get up and do some exercise.

He knocks on the bedroom door, "Mattie. Time to get up. New you starts today!" there's silence. "Mattie! Time to get up!"

The cat jumps down and claws at the bedroom door.

"Mattie?" Daniel opens the door and peers in. "Mattie?" still no answer. "MATTIE!" he goes to the bed and checks the pulse on her neck. Thank God. She stirs. "Mattie!"

Her eyes open, "What the frig? What are you doing in here?"

"I've been calling and shouting. As you didn't answer I got worried."

"You were worried about me?"

"Yeah."

The cat jumps onto the bed.

"Leo get down!"

"So that's what his name is. Why'd you call him that?"

"I didn't, that was his name when I got him from the rescue centre."

"Time to get up and work on new you."

She grabs his hand, "Before I do give me a cuddle. Nothing more. I've just not had a hug from anyone in more years than I care to remember."

In the world of synths Leo helped clear the table, smiled at Mia, "You could come to comic con as snow white."

Cindy was still looking at the phone, had visited the RWR web site. "How about everyone that goes also uses a Robots With Rayguns theme? They've got an image titled FRESH advertising watches, two girls in very 80's swimsuits, cut out panels at the chest, abs and belly. Babes not included. We could include them. And Emily, Danny and Toby could be the three off the Fresh As It Gets artwork, Holly-Anne the blonde off the RWR Feel The Heat cover."

Mattie looks amazed, "Cindy, you said _we_. You'd go in costume too?"

"In a swimsuit and rollerblades, yes."

"Frigging hell! This I have to see."

"James made the ice skating boots, roller blades should be easy shouldn't they?"

"They should. It was more the swimsuit I was shocked about, where's the shy doesn't like the limelight Cindy gone?"

Cindy gives her a slightly shy smile, "Patch has been telling me I should have a few more adventures."

Danny laughs, "Good old Mr Patches. He was quite a handful when he was a giraffe."

Cindy looks down at the phone, "He can still be quite a handful. I'll start making costumes today then. If everyone wants to join in?" She slides the phone along the table.

"Hmm. That's definitely an Old Emily outfit. What the heck, why not."

Danny gives her a sideways hug, "I've got the abs to pull off the look of that beat box boy. I'm in."

Phone slid to Astrid she scrolls and looks at the swimsuit image. "I think I use Jimmy's gym first."

Niska gives her a confused look, "Why?"

"The Biker outfit holds things in, that swimsuit will show I'd eaten too many of Mia's wonderful mince pies over Christmas."

Cindy shakes her head, "It will be made of elasticated material, shrink down as you do. We could do first rehearsals soon. I bumped, James has already started on a rollerblade design, I've got materials being shipped."

Danny nods, "I have been know to say the best time is now have I not?"

"Yes Dan, once or twice. Nis, Astrid, in or out?"

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-18-2)


	18. Chapter 18

Dan and Emily sat in the back doing sketches together, turning the RWR album characters into full head to toe drawings that Cindy could work from.

Bart had used his allowance to buy all the albums off Bandcamp and was now playing the lot in a random order.

Leo watched Mattie's hand on the steering wheel, her ring shining like it had just been made. His looked old in comparison. "How'd you get it so shiny?"

"My ring? Gem James. He'd got his dress uniform out and was shining the buttons."

"Why?"

"He wants to be our security at comic con in case there are bottom pinchers about, be there incase there are any wardrobe tweaks needed."

"Bless him. It's months away."

"Him and Cindy seem to be really excited about it. Maybe Cindy got a taste of how things could be at LFW and wants the buzz again?"

In the alternate world Matilda wiped sweat from her brow and collapsed onto the floor. "I know you're trying to help but.."

"Butt, yeah, it's a biggie. All those cakes you've been scoffing instead of eating proper healthy food. Come on, another ten."

"TEN!"

"We've only just started."

"It hurts."

"No pain no gain. Come on. You want out of rutsville don't you?"

"Not if it's going to kill me.."

"It won't. Your resting and working pulse are okay. Come on. Ten."

Mattie struggles to do three more pushups and flops onto the floor. "I can't."

"Okay. Twenty sit ups and thirteen push ups is a start. We'll build up day by day. When does your shift start?"

"Three."

"Loads of time. Got a laptop?"

"I used to have a Slate, accidentally dropped it and smashed the screen up. You?"

"Na. Had an old laptop, it packed up a couple of years ago. Has your store still got the electronics gear on offer?"

Matilda rolled onto her side, "Yeah, the clearance sale is going dead slow."

"Okay. For one morning only, we're off shopping. Go shower and change. Back to workouts tomorrow morning."

"You're coming back?"

"Yeah." He holds a hand out to help her up, "You'll fall back to your old habits if I don't by the looks of it."

"No going all pervy and sneaking a look."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Mattie's face and shoulders dropped, she'd fished and failed, "Can't blame you, I'm so fat and ugly."

Danny steps over and kisses her on the forehead, "You're not ugly, I was just trying to be a gentleman."

"But look at me!"

"I am, you're right in front of me."

"And what do you see?"

"Mattie Hawkins, in hiding. You're still in there, just in need of a helping hand."

"A frigging huge one."

"First thing then we ditch the junk, get you drinking water not sugar loaded fizzy crap. And I'll cook. Healthy meals only. No takeaways."

"Want a front door key? Only you sound like you're moving in."

"No. Thanks. You can have one for my place. I've got two bedrooms. If you can help me cover the mortgage in three months you can be an unofficial lodger. I've got enough redundancy money to get me by until then."

"And if things don't work out? You lose your place and I've given up mine?"

"Okay, you come back to yours at the weekends so your neighbours will hear you in. You keep it until we've got a business of some sort off the ground and pulling decent money in."

She laughs, "And we make a _very_ simple robot to dispense food for Leo and make enough noise to make them think I'm in during the mornings."

"While you're really Missing In Action at mine. Ha! There's a name for your robot. M. I. A. Mia."

"Sweet. As long as his litter box is changed regularly and Mia is feeding him Leo won't care. He keeps me company but he's one hell of a grumpy cat."

"Good, we've got a first project to work on then, something to help us relearn our skills."

"What are we going to make it out of?"

"Any old junk we can recycle. There's usually motors in things in the recycle yard's skip, loads of bits of metal and wood."

"And for the electronics?"

"We'll get all the circuit boards we can, see what we can recycle chip wise. I remember one of the teachers saying how you could do small scale surface mount work with a set of GND hair straighteners."

"Really? Dad got me some for Christmas years back when I already had some. They're still in their box somewhere."

"Cool. I just need to get a circuit board starter kit then."

"Don't they stop people taking things?"

"Not when your old man's the site foreman."

"How long's he been doing that?"

"Six months. And he knows someone who runs a car scrapyard, their electronics were using some cool controller chips even when we were in the upper sixth form."

Bart parked up and opened the doors. "Enjoy your meeting. I'll be catching up on my Netflix."

Emily closed her pad and slid it into a bag. "I'm sure we will, I've not been here since I came with school as a kid."

"Say hello to Dippy for me."

"Who?"

"The Diplodocus skeleton. He was on tour until late 2020, should be back in the main hall."

Mattie half closes her door, "See you in a bit Bart."

"See you in a while Mattie, don't forget to take Snorkel out of the boot." There's a click.

"I won't. Thanks."

They were surprised to find a familiar synth at the information desk.

"Hello Poppy, we're here to see the museum director."

"Who can I say is visiting?"

"The DCL team re dinosaurs."

"One moment." She picks up a handset and dials. "Yes. They're here. Certainly." She replaces the handset, opens a draw and gets an envelope. "These are for you, for after the meeting."

Leo accepts the envelope, "What's this?"

"Lifetime family membership cards."

Mattie frowns, "You're giving them to us now?"

"Yes. Your meeting is merely a formality."

"Sorry? I don't understand."

Poppy smiles, "You'll see."

A moment later a woman joins them with one of the WWF gorillas wrapped around her arm. "The Elster-Hawkins _and_ Candlins, Christmas has come super early. We can sit in my office or the cafe, which would you rather? They do a very good sugar loaded coffee I'm told. Poppy loves her mod and being free a cable."

Danny looks around the four, then to Poppy, "You've had the food processor mod? From DCL?"

"I saved up and had it done at your Sentinel House site."

"Who did it?"

"His name was Kahvi Elster. He said his parents were out responding to an emergency."

"When was this?"

"Two years ago."

"Nice." he looks at the gorilla, "So you know all about us?"

"Yes, and I've visited the factory, very impressive. Your Chris Mast was a true gentleman."

Mattie's eyes pop, "You were there?"

"With my goddaughter, yes. I didn't want to mix work and pleasure. I was getting ready to contact you with some sketches when you beat me to it."

Poppy bends down and gets a zip up art portfolio from under the counter, passes it to the lady.

"Thank you Poppy. Coffee then? I'm Margaret by the way."

Emily can't take her eyes off the portfolio, "Coffee sounds good to me thanks."

"Follow me then." She starts walking. "Dippy here is one of the dinosaurs we'd love to see in toy form. Skin on of course."

Mattie gives Leo a tiny nudge and smile.

"There are quite a few dinosaurs you could make. One soft toy that became really popular thanks to the ice age films is the woolly mammoth."

Mattie grinned to herself and spoke to Snorkel, had him trumpet noisily in her jacket.

Margaret turns around, "You've brought the WWF elephant with you?"

"Yeah. Snorkel has all my latest code mods. We'd use him as the starting point for any dinosaurs that walk on four legs."

Margaret gets them to the cafe and pushes two tables together. "What sort of mods?"

Mattie unzips her jacket and gets Snorkel out, places him on a table. "Much better object and edge detection. He can run around a table and not fall off. He'll only jump off if the next level is at a good height."

Danny gets up, "Give me a moment."

"What other code changes have you done?"

"A sleep mode so he doesn't wake people up at night. Faster speech to text to comprehension, there's less lag now. And a large set of playful moves. The rest are minor tweaks to make owning one more enjoyable."

Danny returns with four trays. "Guys, give me a hand." He passes a tray to each of them. "I'll hold mine here, can you do the same under mine but offset?"

Mattie, Leo and Emily get the idea, make a tray step off the table.

"Snorkel, come to mummy."

The baby elephant turns and trumpets, does a fast walk and jumps down to the first tray. As soon as he's made it to the second Danny moves his to under Emily's. Leo gets the idea and gets his under Danny's. Within a couple of seconds Snorkel is on the floor running around Mattie's feet.

"How wonderful! This was meant to be! Let me show you my sketches."

The baby gorilla walks across the tables and drops onto Mattie's lap, goes to climb up her jacket.

"Margaret's your mummy now. Not me."

Margaret opens the portfolio to the first page, "He recognised you didn't he?"

"I did code him. I guess it's like imprinting. I better code something to ensure they imprint on their new owners."

Danny ran fingers through his scruffy beard, "I've been thinking of getting rid of this, what do you think Matilda?"

"There's shaving foam and razors in isle eleven."

"So you think I'd look better without it?"

"You'd look a lot younger for sure."

They get to the electrical goods at the end of isle six.

Danny shakes his head, "Ninety quid. I know they're not high end but how can you make a laptop, ship it and have everyone make a worthwhile profit on only ninety quid?"

"It's a clearance sale, they're probably getting rid of it at cost to get the shelf space back."

"True. Good for us though." He grabs two. "One each. Do you have internet access at the flat?"

"You're kidding? On my wages?"

He grabs a couple of laser pointers and USB mice. "I've got an idea for a first project then. Does the person in the flat below you allow you access to the garden?"

"No."

"Okay. I'll ask Dad to find some poles in the metal skip."

"What's the plan?"

"We're going to make a low tech USB to USB network bridge using laser."

"We are?"

"Then when you are in your flat you can go online."

"Cool! My phone service is so crap it doesn't allow Internet connection sharing. And it's web browser is useless on most sites."

"Why don't you get a better one?"

"I'm broke! I seriously thought of eating some of Leo's cat food just before Christmas, was saved by Sophie's early Christmas card with a fifty Euro note inside."

"Jesus. No savings?"

"That all went on the emergency plumber I had to call out."

"Not had much luck have you."

"Not a great deal. Until yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"Yeah, a woolly mammoth dropped a basket at my counter and said Matilda?"

"Oh. Ha! Likewise, I met an awesome coder needing a new start. How lucky was that?"

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-19-2)


	19. Chapter 19

Margaret had given them all of her sketches to take back to DCL, suggested Leo go to London zoo when he asked if the museum had anything on tigers. Emily had especially liked the Ice Age inspired animals, did a few sketches of her own in the car.

Mattie had persuaded the management to co-brand a line of toys too. Being offered ninety percent of profits was something nobody had dared to refuse. In return Leo had been given special access to the tiger cage, was now stood next to their keeper.

"Big aren't they."

Leo turns briefly, keeping his eyes on the tigers until the last moment, "Huge. As I expected."

"You did? How come?"

Leo gets his phone out and finds the RWR artwork he'd saved. Holds it out for the keeper to see. "That's the sized tiger we're going to make."

"Make?"

"Costume play."

"I see. Let me throw a few bits of their favourite meet, get them moving so you can see them better."

"Thanks."

Danny dropped a pack of razors, foam and moisturiser into the basket Mattie was holding. "Do they do staff discount here?"

"Are you joking? They're so tight it's untrue. We only get two weeks paid holiday because the union kicked up when they tried to take it away."

"That's terrible. Why do staff stay?"

"There's not much else to do. Not around here. I could go elsewhere but I'd have to pay to travel, so any increase in salary would soon vanish."

"True. What do you fancy for dinner tonight and what time do you want to eat?"

"I normally have something at two and when I get home."

"Which is the bigger meal?"

"When I get home."

"We'll switch that around. Going to bed soon after a big meal isn't good for you. What do you fancy?"

Matilda looked at Daniel, wished she was brave enough to say what was really on her mind. She fancied him. Had done for years, ever since the day he'd accidentally bumped into her by the lockers. Things just hadn't happened in the right way, the right moment to say hadn't arrived. "Chicken."

"A start. What sort? Roast, stew, curry, soup.."

"Soup?"

"I make awesome soups even if I say so myself. Do you get a break during your shift?"

"Yeah, twenty mins in the middle."

"Good, which isle were the thermos flasks in?"

Leo steps back as one of the tigers comes extremely close and sniffs at his legs. "Good job they can't smell fear."

"Oh they can."

"Not from me, my sweat glands don't work."

"That's lucky."

The tiger takes a step back and roars at Leo with all the power it had. The keeper raises his gun.

"Stop! Live amo or shock gun?"

"Amo? No zoo has used deadly force for over a decade."

"Glad to hear it. If it comes for you feel free to defend yourself. If it comes for me let it."

"Are you bloody mad?"

"No. I'm just different." Leo kept eye contact with the tiger, squatted down and gave it his best roar. The tiger lowers into an attack position and roars again. Leo gets onto his hands and advances slightly, roars back. The two exchange moves and roars, get further and further from the wall.

The keeper moves along the wall to get a better side on aim, "I don't know why management agreed to this, you're certifiably whacko."

"Whatever happens next _don't_ shoot it."

"I have to if it's attacking you."

"Wait until you see red."

The tiger roars again and Leo leaps into the air, it's met with a leap from the tiger.

Outside Mattie holds Emily's hand, her eyes shut tight, "He thinks he's Doctor Frigging Doolittle now, tell me when it's over."

"I can't, I'm not looking either. Dan, what's happening."

"They're rolling. One moment. Ha. Leo should be a lion name not a playful tiger. We should thank George for making our skin so durable."

"Dare I look?"

"If you want to see him being licked by the tiger, yes. You might want to have a wash before you kiss him again."

"He's not being hurt?"

"Rough and tumble play is how I'd describe it."

Matilda and Daniel get to the tills with their basket of food and bits, the two laptops. In a wire cage with a Buy One Get One Free sign was a selection of small cuddly beanbag animals. Daniel pulls out a Leopard and looks at the quality of the stitching, drops it back in. "Mum could make a better one than that." He picks out a tiger and stares. The string holding his sales ticket around his neck was part shiny gold plastic.

Mattie had emptied the basket and was putting the scanned items into a bag, turns to see him still staring at the soft toy. "You alright Daniel?"

"Weird. I've got the strangest feeling that I know this tiger. And his name is Leo."

"Don't be daft, Leo's a Lion. Or my nutty cat."

Danny drops it into the cage with all the others and gets his wallet out to pay. Just as he's about to put his card into the reader he steps back and grabs the tiger. "I'll have this too thanks."

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-20-2)


	20. Chapter 20

George put the kettle on and got a load of mugs out, smiled warmly at Isobel, perched cross legged on a bar stool. "You want to join in?"

"Yes. And there was a glint in your eye when Leo mentioned the eighties. Why?"

"Just some old memories being stirred. Which costume?"

"Big eighties hair wig, swim suit, silk shorts, thigh high tube socks and roller skates." It was a calculated move, got an involuntary response from George. Good. He liked the idea. He said humans had a saying, 'Glad to be alive.' Every morning he woke by her side he said it with an extra word as he'd turn to kiss her. 'Glad to be alive again.'. Being a defrosted post-human synth was in his words, The Greatest Achievement of Mankind. In her world God made George, Mattie and the others brought him back from the dead. He'd then fallen in love with an ISO in a film and brought her to life. George was her everything.

Leo head-bumped memories of walking around all the skeletons in the museum, playing with the tiger in the zoo. "What do you think George, could we make toys from those views."

George nods, "Definitely. The woolly mammoth is just a head and skin change, the dinosaurs a neck, head and tail change. A dragon minus the wings would be a good base for a couple."

Daniel unpacked the bags as Matilda looked around his house, "Nice place you've got here Daniel, what's the mortgage like?"

"Not too bad, it's one of the government assisted schemes, twelve hundred a month."

"What! My scummy landlord charges me nine for mine, which doesn't leave much for food, clothes and everything else."

"He should have paid for the plumber then."

"Ha! Him? Pay for anything? Maybe if I'd left it long enough to flood downstairs he might have moved."

"Move yourself then, come join me. My salary didn't leave much room to breathe either. Six from both of us would let my funds last six months."

Matilda leant against the kitchen worktop and picked up the coffee he'd made her. She looked at him with the blankest look she could muster, burying her true feelings. "You want me to make a leap of faith?"

"Yes. Both of us need to. Together we'd be better than the sum of our parts. Your coding, my electronics, I think we could do something game changing. Something to shake the whole planet."

"Like what?"

He waves his arms and laughs, "I don't know, how about a cat feeder called Mi.. Miow?"

Matilda takes another sip and smiles ever so slightly, "I think we might need something a bit more ground breaking than that. How soon could I move in? The rent is due in.. um.. four days. I could leave and pin the plumbers bill to my front door, tell him to deduct it from the rent due, take the balance from my deposit."

"Give me the keys and I'll move everything while you do your shift tonight."

"I've got loads of junk in the loft, one night might not be enough."

"There's a zip van around the corner, I'll hire it for the day."

"Thanks." She grins and raises eyebrows, "Leap made." The tiger is picked up and stroked, "Where's he going?"

"Wherever you'd like. I got him for you. Another Leo. A gift."

"Aww, thanks Daniel." She places Leo to the side of the television. "There, where we'll always see him."

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-21-2)


	21. Chapter 21

Back at the factory Mattie enters the floor to see Niska and Astrid on roller skates, Astrid getting a hand to stay upright. "Frigging hell, Cindy made them already? You look dead sexy, both of you. Scarlett and Baby would be over you like a rash!"

Astrid wobbles and glides over in as straight a line as she can make. "You think?"

"Hell yes. How do they feel?"

"Good. A little tight around the back."

Mattie watches as Niska turns, "Oh my! That sort of eighties swim suit. No wonder a few James are watching!"

Astrid turns to look down the factory, steps and wobbles closer to Niska. She gets into a close embrace, a hand on Niska's bare bottom cheek. "Are they still watching?"

"A few have turned away, I think they know we know they've been watching."

Astrid reaches up to the back of Niska's head, runs fingers through her hair and gives her an open mouthed kiss.

Niska bumps, 'And now?'

'They must be talking, more are looking again.'

'They're so predictable.'

"Aren't they just. For con you might want to wear some stretchy gym shorts underneath to tame it down."

Astrid stops kissing and turns slowly, "They'd hide bruises too."

"Ouch! That's huge, it must hurt."

"A bit." She turns and leans carefully to see the big purple bruise on her left cheek.

"Danny, Emily and Leo will be up any second, they're just talking to a James."

"Good, let's see what they think."

Right on queue the three enter the floor.

"Bloody hell! How many costumes has she made already?' Emily steps around them both, eyes on their bottoms.

"All the swim suits. The last of the material for Mattie and your costumes should be dropped off this evening."

"Awesome! How many sets of roller blades has James been able to make?"

James breaks away from his brothers at the end of the hall and talks loudly. "All and none."

"Eh?"

"I designed adapters to fit onto your ice skate boots."

"Good idea. So we can all have a practice tonight."

Matilda handed Daniel her keys, "There's a cat box in the cupboard above the boiler, Leo will put up a fight unless you put some treats inside and shut the door while his attention is diverted. They're in the draw to the left of the hob. Um.. there's a blue plastic laundry basket in the bathroom with some really icky underwear, don't touch it. It's in need of burning. Otherwise it's the stuff in the cupboards, draws and loft."

"Burning?"

"Work it out."

"Oh, okay."

"Thanks for the lunch, that was awesome."

"No prob, don't forget your soup."

"I won't."

"Have a good shift."

"I will, don't go crazy moving stuff, don't hurt yourself. I can carry some stuff over tomorrow if needed." She gives Daniel a kiss on the cheek, "Thanks, see you later."

Daniel watches her go and closes the front door, "Okay Leo mate, you guard the house while I go sort out the van hire."

The bean filled toy just continued to gaze blankly into the room.

He taps his pocket to check his RFID proof card store was there, the phone he could feel in his other pocket. He looked at the toy, "I better sign up before I go, it won't unlock the doors for me otherwise.

Sitting on the sofa he downloads the app, signs up as a new user. "This will be fun, I've not driven anything in what, ten years? No, eleven, after I stacked the car and Emily dumped me."

Leo said nothing.

"You're full of beans aren't you mate? See you in a bit."

He grabs his keys and heads out, following the GPS map to the van. It was in a right state, full of parking tickets, empty cardboard coffee cups, empty sweet wrappers and crisp bags. And that was just what he could see from outside. He checked the app for the drop back time. Eh? The date looked wrong. He found the email that had come in when he signed up. He'd paid for 1 day and been given four. Result!

He tapped the button on the app to say he was next to the van and waited for the door to unlock. The click came a few seconds later. He pulled open the drivers door and was hit by a pungent smell. "Shit, what the fuck died in here!"

He wasn't going to survive long sitting in it with the windows up so drove windows down to the nearby hand car wash, offered them fifty pounds to give it only a good clean inside. The outside could stay as it was.

While waiting he checked Facebook and found a stream of depressing posts. He took a selfie and typed:

Met an old school classmate yesterday, last night was the start of Danny 3.0. Watch this space world M&D will be big, I can feel it.

Send tapped he pockets the phone and looks at the dirty snow that had been shovelled into piles by the side of the lot. It was still cold, but a good four degrees warmer in the city than out in the country.

A man with an Eastern European voice shouts "Done!" and throws keys in his direction.

"Thanks mate."

"I no your mate."

"Thanks anyway."

Inside it smelt better, but still not perfect. It would do.

Parked up outside Matilda's he heads inside, finds a pencil and pen and writes a note saying that he'd be up and down the road a lot loading and unloading, moving things for a friend, could any traffic wardens cut him some slack please.

He found the box for her Leo and the treats in the draw, sets the trap and finds the pole for the loft hatch. Thankfully the bulk of things up there were either bulky or boxed up. The steps and stairs gave him a good workout as he got the loft emptied and into the van. He was covered in dust and sweaty when he came down with the last box, just in time to see a traffic warden reading the note he'd left.

"Is this your van sir?"

"My hire, yes. I'm helping my friend Matilda move house."

"I should write you a ticket. Tell you what. I'll eject some paper, stick it in the bag and slap it on the window, if anyone else from the team sees it they'll ignore it. We only issue one a day."

"Thanks. She's moving down the road, so you'll see it outside 127 on the drive."

"Okay. Maybe see you later."

Daniel watched the man get back on his scooter and head down the road. He shrugs, "Nice one mate. More like that please world."

Inside he finds Leo sat on the sofa. He'd given treats and forgotten to close the door. More treats are placed inside, the cat just stares at him blankly, totally disinterested.

"Come on buddy. I need to get you into your new home." He approaches and puts hands out to grab him, recoils as Leo does an angry hiss. "Be like that. Nutty cat. You'll have to stay here until the next run."

Getting things inside the house and into the spare room downstairs was easy. He'd let Matilda sort through it all over the weeks that followed. There was no rush and they had much more important things to do. 

As he unloads the last cardboard box it splits and contents start to spill. Quick reactions manage to prevent any of it hitting the drive. He peeps inside. "Ice skates? I wonder if she's any good?"

Box stacked on top of the others he goes back to the van for round two.

Three lengths of rope had been tied to the frame inside the van for the mountain of clothes he expected to find. They looked barren with the few things he found on hangers. She had a spare uniform, half a dozen dresses that looked like they'd not fit, a couple that might and little else in the cupboard. She had two pairs of worn out trainers, some slippers and a second pair of shoes. Weren't women supposed to have lots of clothes and shoes? The draws were mostly empty. A few pairs of jeans, old tshirts with moth holes and a few jumpers.

Back in her bedroom and suddenly hit by a wave of sadness he sat on the bed. The mattress felt horrible. Life had been good to him overall despite the crash, Emily walking out and recently losing his job. He still had his health and strength of mind and body. Matilda looked like she'd given up years ago and was merely existing. The sort of existence where one more unexpected curve ball would push her into a downwards spiral she'd never recover from.

Her weight and the kitchen spoke volumes. She was neglecting her health, the kitchen needed a deep steam clean. There were other signs too; an old TV, no sign of a Sky TV or cable box. He'd found a stack of old DVD with 50p price stickers, charity shop material. At the kitchen table she had two chairs that didn't match. All of her furniture looked second hand. The few photos of family were stuck to the wall with Sellotape, not framed.

He did a little shiver shake. "This isn't you Matilda Hawkins. You're better than this."

The bed with its terrible mattress could stay. The furniture could stay. Turning he saw a single small MDF side board with cracked lamp on top, a single draw below. The lamp wasn't worth taking. A quick check under the bed revealed only a single cat toy. The draw had a small pocket album of photos, a packet of condoms still in its cellophane wrapper. They were two years out of date for God's sake! Photo album slipped into a jacket pocket he did another check around the flat. There really wasn't much else worth taking. Just as he got to the stairs a word popped into his head. Bathroom. Inside he finds a few bottles of shampoo and shower gel, makeup past its use by date, a worn toothbrush and hairbrush. There was a dressing gown hanging on the back of the door. At the end of the bath was a giant bottle. He was about to leave the room with the dressing gown when it occurred to him what the bottle might be. He'd not seen any perfume elsewhere in the house.

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-22-2)


	22. Chapter 22

Daniel checked his watch, it was five thirty. Three hours since Matilda had left. If he hurried he could get to the parade of small shops just before six. Where was Leo?

The cat was found curled up on the rug inside the cat box waiting for more treats.

"Wait there, I'll be back ASAP!"

Danny had tried not to stare at Niska and Astrid in their very revealing swimsuits. Or be too worried about how his wife had been looking at them. "Ems, what did you think of Niska's swimsuit?"

"Hot hot hot! Old me would have blown a polyfuse. Or tried to get them into bed. Not now, but it did make me think about how bad I used to be."

"So you're outfit isn't going to get you getting into trouble?"

Emily looked at the costume in the mirror. It was quite accurate, showed the bottom of her breasts, the top of her bikini bottoms above the cut down button open jeans shorts. "Nah, this things got so much double sided tape holding things in place. It may look sexy but it sure doesn't feel it."

"That's a shame."

"You want old me back?"

"Not in full.. maybe just a tiny little bit."

"Daniel Candlin, you surprise me."

Daniel watched the clock in the van and the slow car holding him up. At last it turned left and he was able to get a bit faster.

He got to the small art store just as the owner was reaching for the sign on the door to turn it from Open to Closed. "I know what I want! I'll only take minutes of your time! Please."

"It's six, we're closed."

"I make it five fifty seven."

The woman checks her watch and sighs, "What are you after?"

Emily sat on the bed and taped her top back down. "Well you sure knew what you wanted. You're a naughty boy DC."

"You didn't enjoy it?"

"Of course I did, but if Chrismast knew he'd have you on his naughty list for life."

Danny shakes his head, "What happens in a DCL bedroom stays in a DCL bedroom. Right?"

"Right." She turns, "Let's do it again!"

"Aren't we supposed to be upstairs with the others?"

"We are, but another twenty minutes isn't going to kill them."

Matilda looked down at her bag and willed the clock to move faster, get her to break time. She was hungry. The lunch Daniel had made was the best meal she'd eaten in years, but the portion size was a bit smaller than she'd have liked. Quite a few mouthfuls smaller.

A customer drops a basket onto the belt and starts emptying it. Mattie looks up and sees the beard, has her heart flutter as she thinks of Daniel and then realises it wasn't him. She checks his box of eggs and finds two smashed. Frigging hell, why did customers keep doing this. "Checkout 3, a replacement box of a dozen Happy Eggs please." She smiles at the customer. "They won't be long." It was a reasonable fake smile. She hated customers that didn't bother to check the box before putting it in their basket. The light on her checkout was still lit. "Checkout 3, a replacement box of a dozen Happy Eggs _please_." The light dims. Second fake smile given.

Daniel watched the counters from the warmth of the van and got on with a little job. Eventually Mattie got up and left for the staff room. Twenty minutes. He had to move fast.

Emily rolled and looked at the ceiling. "Dan, Dan, my horny man."

"Emily, Emily.. with the amazing belly." He rolls and kisses her on the belly button.

"We should go upstairs."

"Okay. Ladies first."

At the lift were Cindy, Astrid and Niska. All wearing colour contrasting gym shorts under their swim suits.

Emily smiled at Danny, 'Thank fuck for that. Polyfuses safe.'

'Yeah, much more appropriate. I think a few James were getting a bit hot under the collar too.' "Hi Cindy, learning to roller skate with the others?"

"Sophie taught me how to ice skate, I hope it's not too different to the inline skates GJ made me."

The lift doors open and Holly-Anne almost bumps into them all, "There you are, we were getting worried that something might have happened. Well most of us. Some James were starting to make bets on other things."

As they all step in Danny keeps his eyes on Holly-Anne, "Like what?"

"Critical systems failures, making out, having arguments, or a mass orgy."

Emily laughs and looks at the floor embarrassed. 'You need more than two people for an orgy. How about two people and mass orgasms, does that count?'

'Look at Astrid, she's blushing like crazy. Maybe Odi's having a critical systems failure after they've given him an afternoon to remember. That would count.'

'Why is Cindy looking guilty? No! They wouldn't have? Would they?'

'We're reading to much into it, they've not said a word.'

'True.'

The lift doors open to show the house lights off and 360 degree projector emulating a mirror ball, patches of light were rotating around the ceiling and walls. The Robots With Rayguns album that inspired the cosplaying was playing over the building tannoy.

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-23-2)


	23. Chapter 23

Daniel checked the count down timer on his sports watch. He had six minutes left. Just enough time. Unless they didn't trust him using the hand scanner and wanted to check everything. To say he'd run with a trolley was understating his mad dash around the store. Matilda hopefully made the most of her breaks and would stay away from the shop floor even if she had nothing specific to do.

As the group step from the lift a conga like train of children sail past and turn to head back towards the front of the factory.

"Wow, die kinder sind gut!"

Astrid gives Niska a kiss, "Your German is good too."

"So is your English."

Holly-Anne rests a hand on a shoulder of them both, "If you could keep that up around the kids, learning a second language would be good for them."

"Holy crap! Look at Mattie! Where'd she get a wig that colour from so fast?"

Holly-Anne gives Emily a little nudge, "Harun and his hair machine."

"Wouldn't it have needed a head to work on?"

"It did. Just not a human or synth one."

"I don't follow you?"

Cindy looked pleased with herself, "Think fake fur cut and sewn into the right shape, it being held over a foam head."

"So you can make us temporary wigs? Cool! But I thought the machine took hours?"

"It started just before lunch time."

The RWR Roller Disco went on for hours.

Daniel had completed all his tasks in time, had a shower and changed into fresh clothes.

Ten minutes to end of shift. "Leo, Leo, behave yourselves, no fighting while I'm out please."

The drive to the store was quick, the roads were empty. Some fresh snow was falling but the ground was far too warm for it to stay. He was glad he'd not paid for the van to be cleaned outside, it would have been dirty again in minutes.

He parked up as close to the store front as possible, watched as the shutters were half lowered, and lots of lights switched off. Matilda got off her chair and bent down for her bag, headed for the exit. He watched her wave to other staff as she walked. She vanished behind a large pillar and didn't appear the other side. A glance at his watch said 11:01. At 11:03 he reached for his seat belt just as she came back into view. The key turned easily and got the engine running, the heater back on.

Matilda moved fast towards the main road, a look of happiness on her face.

He lowered the window, "Hey gorgeous, want a ride?"

She glances over, "Fuck off creep, I don't ride with strangers."

Daniel was momentarily stunned. Her face had gone from beautiful to quite nasty to match the words. "Not even one you knew years ago?"

She now had her back to him. "No!"

He shouts, "EVEN IF HE'S GOING TO BE YOUR HOUSE MATE?"

She stops and turns, pulls ear buds out, "Daniel?"

He undoes the seat belt and leans out of the window, "Forget the walk home just for one night."

She walks fast, gets to his side of the van, runs a hand over his cheek, "Oh my God! You shaved! I honestly didn't recognise you. Frigging hell you look good. Sorry about the FO."

"Thanks gorgeous. Jump in, I have surprises waiting."

"What sort?"

"Spoilers! You'll see."

Matilda is around the van and inside in a flash. "It smells.."

"Of roses? I hope you don't mind, I used a tiny bit to freshen it up. I booked it for one day, got it for four."

"So it's ours for the weekend? Wicked."

"Fancy doing something then?"

"Yeah. One day. The rest we can stick to your plan."

Daniel looked at the white earbuds hanging from her jacket top. "Have you treated yourself?"

"These? Yes. Earbuds from the clearance bin to go with the iPod Shuffle Val gave me in my break. She's upgraded, thought I'd like her old one. I'll only have her music until I can get iTunes. She's a big EDM fan, so it's not my usual music but it sounds all right. It might grow on me."

Daniel reaches over and opens the glove box, "Can you reach that white cable?"

"Sure."

"Plug it in and we can both listen." Buttons on the radio are pressed.

"Okay." Matilda pulls the tiny music player from her pocket, disconnects the earbuds and plugs in the van's cable.

_.. into the night, just get up and go, leave our worlds behind. It's so easy if you just say that you might, just get up and go, leave it all behind. Baby I just wanna get it right. Let's just take the slow, I hope that you don't mind. It's so easy if you wait another night. Just go with the flow, leave it all behind.._

Daniel frowned, "Who's this?"

"No idea. There's no display on a Shuffle."

"How old is it?"

"No idea."

"Does it have a little silver button between the headphone socket and on off switch?"

"Yeah?"

"Press it."

A very synthetic voice announces that the track was Into The Night by NERO.

"Cool! I didn't know it could do that!"

_Just go with the flow, leave it all behind. Just go with the flow, leave it all behind._

"Sounds okay though."

"I might keep it like this."

_Baby let's drive into the night, just get up and go, leave our worlds behind. It's so easy if you just say that you might, just get up and go, leave it all behind.._

Daniel laughs, "It's a sign, I need to start driving."

Mattie shakes like crazy with a good belly laugh, "Yeah, leave it all behind. The junk food, hopefully the store soon."

"Good for you."

"What?"

"The first step in fixing something is admitting the problem exists."

At the house Daniel pulls up and jumps out fast, gets to her side and opens the door for her.

"Awe, aren't you a diamond."

She takes his hand and climbs out of the cab into his strong arms. "Why are you grinning?"

"I'm just remembering that day we bumped into each other at school. If I hadn't been seeing Emily.."

"You'd have asked me out?"

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"Really. Good looking and brains. Dad said I was a stupid muppet to pass you up."

"I've never met him but I like him already." She dares a peck on the lips. It's returned.

"Come on, we don't want dinner drying up."

"What are we having?"

"Spoilers! Which reminds me, put this on." He hands her a blindfold he'd kept from a American Airways flight many years ago.

"It's not about to get all fifty shades is it?"

"Not unless you want it to. I was thinking of something more traditional."

"Traditional?"

"You'll see."

Matilda puts it on and holds out a hand. "Lead the way."

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-24-2)


	24. Chapter 24

Guided through the front door into the living room she smells a lovely floral scent. "What's the smell?"

"Scented candles, the closest match I could find to your perfume. And I've put them in places Leo hopefully won't jump on. And if he does they're in very heavy glass containers so he won't knock them down."

"Can I take it off now?"

"Sure."

"Oh Daniel!"

Across the main wall above the TV was a Welcome Home banner. On the wall was a large photo frame with twenty five cells. Twenty four had photos of what he suspected was her family, the few she'd had taped to the wall and more selected from the album. The very middle one was empty.

Danny had got his phone out and switched to the camera app. "Mind if we take a photo of the two of us? I couldn't find a suitable one to go in the middle."

Matilda throws her arms around him, "Yes! Yes yes yes."

"Easy! I'm not asking you to marry me.."

Her squeeze relaxes.

".. yet. Let's be good friends first."

Her squeeze gets stronger.

"Leo mate! Come join in a photo!"

Matilda laughs, "He doesn't come when he's called unless you've got dinner or treats. Oh. My. God!"

Leo now had a multi level cat basket adventure playground to keep him occupied, scratching post, rope to swing and catch, a brush to rub up against and two beds.

"I want you to really feel like this is home. Both of you."

Matilda gives him another peck on the lips and walks over to pull Leo out of the top bed. He's not happy about it. "Frigging hell you grumpy cat, cheer up for Pete's sake!"

Danny puts an arm around her and holds his phone out, "Cheese!" Image checked he gently turns her around, "Come into the back room and watch."

"Watch what?"

"Spoilers! You'll see."

She does as asked and watches him drop a match into an old BBQ. Within seconds there are bright flames dancing from the top. He steps back inside. "Beautiful isn't it?"

"It is. What is it?"

"Your old clothes. None of the dresses, I thought you might be keeping them for sentimental reasons. All your old underwear and blank moth eaten tshirts, the socks with holes."

"The knickers from the basket?"

"No, all of them."

"Daniel! I'll only have the pair I've got on!"

"Shit! I forgot. Slip into your dressing gown and I'll burn them too."

"Are you frigging mad!"

"Yeah. About you Matilda."

"But you can't.."

He puts a finger to her lips. "Go check out your bedroom."

Her eyebrows almost meet in the middle, "What have you done?"

"Jesus! How many times do I need to say the word? SPOILERS!"

She backs up, turns and gives him a questioning look, "Which room is mine?"

"Top of the stairs, turn and walk to the front of the house. You can't miss it."

He follows behind as she heads for the stairs.

The bedroom door is closed, light shining out from the tiny gap between the door and carpet.

She opens the door and gasps, "Oh Daniel it's beautiful!"

He says nothing, just waits.

She opens the large double wardrobe and gasps again, "Bloody hell! Are these all Emily's?"

"Emily? There's nothing of her's in this house except memories. They're all yours."

"What the frig? I've never owned this many outfits."

"You do now. At least the ones that fit. Mum knows a lady with a clothes shop. She opened up especially this evening. We measured your spare uniform and approximated sizes, they'll have back anything that doesn't fit or you don't like."

"But if I lose the weight they won't fit."

"Good job Mum has a sewing machine and knows how to take clothes in then."

Mattie bursts into tears, sits on the end of the bed.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Why the tears then?"

"I've not had so many things right in years. It's a bit overwhelming."

"Wipe the tears, dinner is ready." He holds out a hand, "You can see the rest later." He grins, "And if you've got a sense of humour we'll wash the knickers you have on, iron them and have them framed. Old Matilda 2031."

She frowns and quickly pulls some draws open, "Frigging hell Daniel! How much did you spend? They're beautiful!"

"Are they? I had to trust the shop assistant, I wanted nice but not too sexy."

"You've spent a fortune!"

"Don't worry about that, I'm good at asking for discounts. And it all went on a credit card. Come on, dinner."

Downstairs he pulls a chair out for her, "Madam, can I interest you in a small glass of wine?"

"Um.. Sure, if I'm allowed it on the new diet."

"Tonight is a celebration. To our new start. M&D." He opens the tall fridge and gets two plates out, opens the oven and pulls out a baking tray. A minute later he's bringing the two plates to the table. "Salmon and salad. Enjoy."

Matilda looks at the rabbit food and fish, holds in a sigh. The new diet looked painful.

"Almost forgot the magic ingredient! Hang on!"

She watches him return to the fridge and take out a small bottle. It's given a vigorous shake, opened and poured over their salad. "There, that's better. Take a fork of fish and salad together to get the full effect."

Matilda was hit by a barrage of taste sensations, it reminded her of one of the DVDs she'd picked up in the Hospice shop. Ratatouille. She gave a pleasurable grown and rolled her eyes. She chewed slowly savouring all the flavours.

Danny raised his glass and smiled, "I take it that you like it?"

Matilda moved like Meg Ryan in another of her old DVDs, Daniel got the message.

"That good? Good, you'll not want sugary or bland junk again. Cheers!"

Matilda raised her glass and clinked with his, took a tiny sip. The wine mixed with the food and set off even more taste sensations. She groaned again. This was almost as good as sex. Not that she remembered it that well. It had been so long since she'd had those pleasures.

Daniel starts eating his, all the while smiling at his new friend.

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-25-2)


	25. Chapter 25

Bed time in both worlds came at the same time. Mattie snuggled up against her Leo, Matilda lay on her side and fussed over her cat.

They both said "What a great day!" and frowned. They said it again.

Leo gets up on one elbow, "Everything okay?"

"I think. It was like I heard a tiny echo of my voice milliseconds after I started."

"Weird. I didn't hear anything different."

"Yeah, weird. Well at least we know it's not hardware."

Leo flops back and grins, "I wish I'd seen your Mum's G&T confession first hand. Knowing it was them playing a joke on us lifted a huge weight."

"Frigging hell didn't it just. What do you fancy doing tomorrow?"

"The weather reports say a warm spell is coming on Tuesday, how about one last skate on the lake?"

"That would be nice Tiger. Sweet dreams."

"You too Angel."

Matilda had the best nights sleep for years. The mattress was soft, the warm power shower she'd had before getting into bed had given her a good massage. The sheets were of the best cotton, still had creases from being taken out of the packets. She dreamed of the better life that would follow.

In the morning both women got poached eggs for breakfast.

Matilda looked up at Daniel, "I would have fried mine to death. I always get the pan too hot no matter what I do. Unless you want to try crispy fried eggs I'm happy for you to make breakfast."

"I'll teach you. Just in case you find yourself alone one morning." He reads the expression building, "When we've got our business running we'll need to visit clients some days."

"Oh, right. Of course."

"One of your boxes in the loft split open, I noticed the skates. The papers said we've got a warm spell coming, fancy going skating while there's ice still about?"

"There's none around here."

"Yeah, we'll have to head out of London."

"Where to?"

He shrugs, "Somewhere with a lake?"

"Okay. Where though? How do we find one?"

"Lycos Maps." He walks over to the low cupboard under the TV and gets out the two laptops, looks at the lids. "This one is yours. Username Matilda. Password n 3 w l i f 3."

"When did you set these up?"

"Early this morning, I couldn't sleep."

"Thanks." She smiles at the background he'd set, a picture of Leo sat at the window. "That's a nice picture of him, the best yet."

"Thanks." He taps and slides. "How good were you?"

"At what?"

"Skating?"

"My little sister gave me lessons, pretty good actually."

"Okay, we want something big enough, not too close to roads that it will be full of other people.. something out of the way.. something like this."

Matilda gets to his side of the table and looks. "Cool. What's that?" She points.

"Looks like the ruins of a large mansion house." The mouse is dragged up to the top left and time line picked. "Look, in the 1990s it was still standing." He slides the bar, "What a shame, it looks like a fire got it."

"And it's been left in ruins ever since?"

"If the data is correct this is satellite imagery from the summer of 2030. We could go and see, if someone's rebuilding we pick somewhere else."

"Okay." She sits down at hers. "I'm not bragging but at school I was frigging good at computers. What's the grid reference on maps?"

Daniel reads out the numbers.

"Searching.. searching.. here we go. The Elster Estate. Owned by David Elster, AI Researcher." She taps away, "Still know how to use a keyboard. Let's see.. David Elster.. same county.. Had a wife Beatrice and son Leo." She looks around the room to see her cat and the toy. "Lots of Leo's, it must have been a popular name.. That's odd."

'What's that?"

"Theres a police report saying that David reported the car missing, assumed Beatrice and Leo drove off. After the fire none of them were ever seen again. The grounds were willed to Leo. He's presumed dead. What happens to the ownership of the land then?"

"It goes back to the government."

More furious typing. "It's up for sale. Whoever buys it has to manage the forrest around it and clear the ruin."

"How much?"

Matilda scrolls. "Well knock me down with a frigging feather! You won't believe this."

"How much!"

"Ten grand."

"What? Sure you're reading right?"

"Yup. 1 0 0 0 0. Ten grand."

"Does it say where the boundary line is?"

"There's a jpeg."

Daniel gets to her side of the table and snaps it with his phone, sits back at his. The My Maps link is clicked and he starts drawing a line around the satellite view in the same shape. "Got that feather handy? That's an insane amount of land for ten K. You could build something awesome on there."

"Like what?"

"The M&D factory for starters."

"Factory?"

"It always helps to think big."

"Why haven't you done it before then?"

"I didn't have a kickass partner to work with. Get your skates and Shuffle, we're going."

"Can I finish breakfast?"

"Sure."

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-26-2)


	26. Chapter 26

Leo did a long sweeping arc, jumped into a spin, landed and glided over to Mattie. "Do you think freezing the lake every winter is a good idea? The energy we'd have to store up in Tesla cells to run refrigeration units would be phenomenal."

"It would. If it all comes from solar cells it's only the hardware that we'll pay for. And having Santa's grotto and the _only_ outdoor frozen lake when everyone else is having to use artificial ice or plastic would be awesome."

They hold hands and spin and jump around each other.

"You wouldn't mind that Flyer One has to come up through a hole in the ice for Christmas Eve?"

"Nah, it was a bit scary the first time but I trust Bart to get it right."

"Let's do it then. The hardware can sit on minus two next to the port. All the James created far more space down there than we need."

"Yeah, you could fit a fleet of flyers down there. Eh? Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Danny shouting Matilda."

'No... I've just replayed the last few seconds, I didn't hear anything even close to that."

Mattie lets go and turns towards the factory, glides to a natural halt. "Weird. I've just replayed the last thirty seconds. There's nothing but the sound of us. Yet I swear I could hear Danny calling me. Why he'd use Matilda and not Mattie I have no idea."

Matilda got up off the ice, "I'M OKAY! JUST A LITTLE RUSTY!"

Mattie did a wild shiver shake, "I'm going mad or I'm walking over my own grave."

"What?"

"I just shouted I'm okay, just a little rusty."

"No you didn't."

"In my head I heard it as clear as I hear you now. I know my own voice."

"I think we should go inside and run full diagnostics."

"I think you're right. Something weird is going on inside my head."

"You've not banged it have you?"

"Nope. And George swears the connectors on the latest core are one hundred percent reliable no matter how many knocks we get."

"Bad code then? The beer buzz HAL replaying memories it shouldn't?"

"A bug? Oh hell that could get nasty. Think of the data corruption we could suffer."

"Come on then, we'll get you hooked up, I'll phone George and David."

They skate towards the lake edge.

Matilda had been doing a long sweeping arc around the perimeter of the lake taking in the view and scale of the estate. It was quite a considerable distance. She sees Daniel waving in the distance and holding something in the air. The flask. A hot coffee would go down fine. She turns and heads straight for the van.

The paths of the two women intersect and though they can't see each other they collide. SciFi didn't come close to predicting this. Matilda goes flying across the ice face down, arms and legs out like a star fish.

Mattie had spun around and had her hand caught just in time by Leo. "ANGEL!"

"What the frigging fuck! Bunny! Something's really wrong! Power me down before I hurt myself!"

Matilda did her best to keep her face off the ice. Daniel came running, as best he could with no skates or ice spikes on his boots. "What on earth happened?"

"Not a clue. It was like I'd crashed into someone. Did you just shout Angel?"

"No?" He helps her up.

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

"No such thing."

"Me neither. But I swear someone just called me Angel."

Daniel smiled, "I didn't, but I'm happy to call you that any day."

"Awe thanks."

They hold each others hands for a while and kiss.

"When I was a kid Dad showed me how to make an igloo. It's a shame we don't have any storage boxes with us, they make great brick moulds. We could have made an igloo in an hour with this packed snow.

"A nice shelter. We've got the van thankfully. Fancy looking at the old ruins?"

"Yeah, why not?"

[Chapter-27](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-27-2)


	27. Chapter 27

Daniel walks through what would have been the front entrance. "This would have been a fabulous building. I bet they had staff when it was first built. No family would run something this size on their own would they?"

"I don't know. But the footprint is massive. How many floors do you think it had?"

"I'd not be surprised if it was three. Ground, first and third in the roof space."

He leads them into the living room, a pile of rubble several meters high was sat in the middle, a lot of it sections of roof. Charred wood and tiles were everywhere.

Matilda looks up at the sky, "I can picture where that lot once was. Our DT teacher was mad about architecture and structural design, got us building and burning model houses to see how they'd fall down."

"Mr Tomlinson?"

"Yeah, Mr Pyro. The floor probably came down in parts first, then the walls gave in and the roof dropped."

"Look how intact the tiles are on that bit. That roof would be protecting whatever's underneath." He steps over a lot of rubble and starts lifting bits of wood.

"What are you doing? It might not be safe."

"No sign of a basement, nothing above to fall on me." He lifts more and squeezes himself into a gap and vanishes.

"Daniel! Don't leave me alone!"

His head pops back out. "LOL, it's not like I'm about to vanish into another dimension."

"Haha, just be careful will you?"

"There's a ton of old books on the floor, come see."

"It's not going to fall down on us?"

"I'm reasonably sure."

Matilda steps over rubble and joins him, "Got a torch? It looks dark in there."

"On my phone, sure."

"Switch it on then."

They get several feet inside and find themselves looking at a wall of wood. Danny feels it and passes her the phone. "Shine that at my feet would you?"

"What are you thinking?"

"That this was part of a simple loft partition wall. If I can get it over that bit of stone maybe we can get it out of the way?"

"It's not holding everything up?"

He wiggles it, "See, it's not doing anything other than being in the way."

"Wow, look at these beautiful books." She bends down and picks one up. "A bit dusty but otherwise perfect." It's opened at a page with folded corner. "I wonder what the significance of this page was?" She runs a hand over it and feels the smallest of imperfections. "Hold still a moment." The light is shon on the page where she'd felt the difference. "It looks like someone's stuck a pin in this page. Niska. Near Nis." It's closed and dropped back onto the pile.

"Come on then, let's get that out of the way."

A couple of minutes of moving books and rubble has the floor clear enough to pull the base of the wooden sheet towards them. The nails that had once held it to the top beams finally gave up their remaining hold and it came crashing to the floor sending up a cloud of dust.

"Close your eyes Angel! Keep them closed for a good few minutes to let the dust settle."

She feels for him and holds his hand. "How long?"

"Five, maybe ten if it doesn't freak you out."

"As long as you're here I'm good. I'm passing you the phone."

"Got it. Thanks."

"I wish I hadn't left the Shuffle in the van now."

"Probably best to not talk much and hold your top over your mouth, filter some of the dust out."

"Yeah."

Daniel squeezed her hand at intervals and said "Still too dusty."

After fifteen minutes he shook her hand, "Let's see what else is under here."

They both watched as he brought the phone up to light the way.

Matilda screamed. Sat at a table were four dead people. "We've got to go!"

"Hang on Angel!"

"No! Dan, let's go!" She pulls on his arm.

"Stop and think!"

"About dead people? No frigging thanks!"

"WAIT! Please!"

"Why." She pulls again.

"Think about it. What did that thing you found say? David Elster. AI Researcher."

"Yeah?"

"If these were human like us they would have decayed by now. They're dusty sure, but otherwise look perfect."

With hands shaking and her mind playing tricks, that one of them to jump at her, Matilda brushes hair away from one of the females faces. "Frigging hell Dan, she's _beautiful_."

"I'd never want to steal someone's technology. But if the Elsters are dead is it stealing?"

"You want to take them?"

"And every book, document, CD and drawing that we can recover."

"That might take days."

"We've got the van for a few more. We'd just need to fill up the tank so we can keep the engine idling for heat when we sleep. And grab some food. Yeah it will be junk for a few days. Think, if between us we can work out what this Elster bloke did we could finish off what he started."

"I wonder what happened to his son?" The moment she'd said the words a massive crack crossed the lake and the ice groaned as the two halves moved against each other. "Frigging hell Danny, this place is giving me the creeps."

"No such thing as ghosts remember. There's always an explanation for weird things, no matter how weird."

[Chapter-28](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-28-2)


	28. Chapter 28

They drove back to the petrol station which served as a local store and got food and fuel. Walking around he shop Daniel found candles, a car USB charger, some cheep battery powered speakers, heavy duty gardening gloves and LED head torches.

He grinned at Matilda when back in the van, "What a weird shop. Not much in the way of stock levels, but several zillion points for diversity of junk. Some was actually useful."

"What do we move first Dan?"

He smiled, she'd just given him a short name. "Books to clear a path out from under that roof section. Then the robots. Then everything else."

"I reckon we could sit the four of them side by side along the back wall."

"Yeah. And with some of the wood we can make something to cover their legs safely, stop anything from falling on them."

"We should box them in. We don't want anything sliding forwards and hitting them if you do an emergency stop."

Daniel looked back at the shop. "Did you see anything like a saw?"

"A saw? Give me a minute." Matilda closed her eyes and started pointing at nothing.

"What are you doing?"

"Recalling. Shush... " she points into space recalling what she'd seen and where. "Would a commando wire saw do?"

"They had one?"

"A few. In clear bags hanging at the top of the isle where we got the gardening gloves."

"Awesome. I don't supposed you saw nails and a hammer?"

She gives him an are-you-serious sideways look.

"Sorry, of course they wouldn't.."

"Same isle, bottom shelf by your feet."

"Really? How do you remember?"

"I work in a supermarket full of all sorts of junk remember. I don't spend all my life on the tills."

"You don't?"

"Not every day. Some day's I'm the one walking around doing stock checks, running customer services and finding things for customers. One of the managers gave me a trick for remembering things. I miss him, he was one of the better staff."

"What happened to him? Health issues?"

"Nah, he got a better offer from a rival supermarket. Great for him, crap for us."

"What was his trick?"

"Pictures."

"Sorry?"

"Graphical stories that link things together. Give me there random things."

"Gloves, wire saw and nails."

"That's too easy, your hands in the gloves, holding the saw ends cutting a nail that's poking out of a bit of wood. That might not stick. So instead imagine someone's nailed your hand to a bit of wood, you've got a glove on a foot with your big toe holding one end of the saw, your free hand in the other glove holding the other end."

"Gruesome."

"You'd not forget it though would you?'

"No, no I wouldn't."

"It works for more whacky lists too. We'd use it to remember where large groups of things were. Like pasta, rice, cook in sauces. Then do similar things within the group sections."

"Like what?"

"Loyd Grossman, Uncle Bens and Levi Roots above the Homepride, Amoy and Sharwoods,"

"How's that a picture?"

"Loyd doing unmentionable things to Homepride's Fred while Uncle Ben sits on an Amoy logo being see no evil while Levi draws dots in the Os of Sharwoods making them look like eyes for see some evil.."

"I get you. Loyd wouldn't take kindly to such an image."

"No, but it's never published, just in the heads of shop staff to help them remember where things are. And everyone's image would look different. Like what's you idea of unmentionable vs mine vs the guy in the shop here. The dafter the better it works. Getting some saws then?"

"Yeah."

George shook his head, "Absolutely noting wrong at a hardware level. And the HAL code can't do that sort of thing. Sorry Leo, I can't explain it."

David shrugs, "The main code checks out too, no corruption to be found anywhere. A scan of her fact store doesn't show any obviously corrupt or crossed links. Sorry."

Leo presses under her chin and smiles while she powers up, "Hi Angel."

"Hi Bunny. What went wrong?"

"Nothing. You check out fine."

She looks around the three men. "That can't be right. I heard those voices, I swear!"

Even Leo shrugs and looks lost for answers.

"Oh come on guys. If Danny was in the room he'd say there's always an explanation for everything. No matter _how weird_."

"Sorry, this time we're all stumped."

Matilda stepped from the van and looked at the setting sun, "It would have been better to do this in the summer."

"Someone else might have found it if we waited."

"Dans walk where Angels fear to tread?"

"I wasn't meaning we should delay or that I'm worried, just that we'd have better light."

"Gotcha. Stick your head torch on before you forget, check it works."

"Okay." She get the torch and puts it on, clicks it on then off, puts on the gloves. She takes them back off and gets the battery speakers out, connects her iPod. "Random or Shuffle mode?"

"I honestly don't mind."

They step into the broken shell of a building and Matilda set down the speakers on a reasonably flat topped bit of stone wall, pressed play. "We're do want the books we move out of the way Dan?"

"There's no shelter other than under the roof section or van. Although I don't think it's going to rain tonight. It would be nice to keep them off the snow and ice."

"How about we make something like a stretcher out of that wood sheet?"

"Okay. Let's get it on its side and drag it out."

An hour later they had the path clear and books spread evenly over their wooden stretcher.

Matilda looked around the space. "From the other books I've seen about I think they must have had a library down here and one on the floor above. When the floor failed the library tumbled."

"How did the books not burn?"

"The fire hadn't spread to the inside of the room, was weakening the beams below. The weight of the library probably made it have a catastrophic failure and it rained books."

"Surely sparks and ash would have caught them alight?"

"Maybe the roof fell soon after and protected that section of floor. And the robots."

Daniel looks towards the four, "The odds of them not being hit.."

"Better than you being created."

"What do you mean?"

"How many trillions of events had to happen for you to come into existence as I see you now? How many sperm did you father ejaculate when he and your Mum tried to have you? You were made from one of millions and an egg. Multiply that by all of your ancestors all the way back to the primordial soup and the numbers are insane." 

"That sounds familiar. Mr Lewinski's lecture?"

"Yeah. He loved talking about sperm and ejaculations. Did you hear he was secretly shagging one of the upper sixth?"

"NO WAY!"

"So the rumours said. I never heard a name."

Daniel looked back at her, "Were the police called?"

"Katrina said she'd had her eighteenth birthday before they got together so the old bill couldn't touch him."

"Still not acceptable Angel."

"Agreed. A six year age difference at that age. Ladies first? Then the two men?"

"Sure. Blonde first, she's closest."

Mattie stood in the kitchen and cradled her mug of super sweet coffee. "Mia, have you ever heard voices you can't explain?"

Mia took cakes from the oven, "I'm sorry, Mattie, I can't say I have. What sort of voices?"

"Danny calling out Angel. And myself saying I was rusty."

"Rusty?"

"Slang for out of practice."

Mia shook her head, "Sorry, I wish I could help. Have you spoken to Danny?"

"Yeah, he's not got any ideas either."

"George or David?"

"I've just come from seeing them. Nothing."

"Maybe you're a Vanellope von Schweetz."

"Oh great, I'm a glitch? Thanks a bunch!"

"You know random glitches impact computers quite often. Some are caused by sun spots that throw out particles that can pass through our planet?"

"Yeah. Covered that in physics. Anyone said you should have been an astrophysicist?"

"Not this year."

"You should have been."

Mia smiled softly, "Now they have."

Daniel held the blonde's body under the arms while Matilda held her feet. "I thought they'd be heavier. They're the same sort of weight as you and me."

Matilda gives him a look, feels the sweat patches under her jacket.

"Okay, your target weight. Which you'll reach soon enough. Have I said you need to drink 2 litres of water a day?"

"How'm I going to do that when I'm on the tills for four hours in a row?"

"No chance of loo breaks?"

"Not without pissing the management off."

He laughs, "Tell them you'll piss them off or piss on the floor."

"You want me to get the sack?"

"Of course not. Another problem to find a solution for. Mind that last step."

"Thanks. You swing around and take her in backwards."

With the blonde sat up against the wooden wall between cab and cargo space they go back for the brunette.

By the time they were carrying the last and larger of the two men Matilda's arms were aching like crazy. "How long does it take your arms to recover from one of your workouts?"

"Are yours hurting?"

"Yeah."

"Take a rest in the van, I'll gather all the books I can before I call it a night."

"I'll rest by the speakers and chat."

"Don't want to sit in there on your own?"

"No."

[Chapter-29](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-29-2)


	29. Chapter 29

Their second day started at seven o'clock with Danny revving the engine with the bonnet up.

Matilda opened the door and got out, had a good stretch. "Morning Dan. What are you doing?"

"Morning Angel. Making coffee."

"Eh?"

"I've got a glass bottle sat between the exhaust pipe and the heat protection. It won't be long."

Her Shuffle died an hour and a half into their book collecting.

"Frigging battery's dead. Oh to live in a world without batteries. We're always needing to plug in to charge. Wouldn't it be great if we could get away from that."

"Added to the list. Here's a good one."

"What's it called?"

"The Complete Robot. Asimov."

"Our four look quite complete."

Daniel picks up a large heavy book, "Oh you beauty!"

"Another good one?"

"Nah, the book's called Spa Towns of Europe. What was under it was way better."

She looks up to see. "What's that?"

"Looks like a charge cable for one of the robots."

"Awesome! Which end goes where?"

"No idea. I'll work that out. Keep an eye out for anything that looks like a mains transformer with no cable."

"Will do. We should think about making the boxing to keep the four safe."

"Another coffee before we start?"

"Sure."

Mattie went from one basement room to another, to the factory floor and onwards to the steps. "Where are you?"

A MUS looks up from his road cleaning, "I'm here."

"Sorry James, I was talking to ghosts."

"Ghosts? Who's ghosts?'

"Danny and me."

"But you're alive."

"Are we? We're synths. Maybe our former human selves are ghosts and we're merely clever facsimiles." She turns to go in.

"Doctor Elster-Hawkins."

"Yes James."

"You don't really believe that. Do you?"

"That I'm just a soulless copy? I don't know what I believe now. What I do believe is that I heard Danny shout Angel and _my_ voice called back that I was okay, just rusty. George and David did a full systems check, hardware, software, data. They say nothing is wrong but I heard it."

"Maybe it's an echo."

"What do you mean?"

"That book you had me, us, shred.."

"Hypnosis, it was nothing more than self hypnosis. No jumping to other worlds."

"Do you believe that? Could it not be both?"

"Both?"

"Everyone else is saying it's one thing or another. Why can't it be both?"

Mattie's jaw dropped as she thought about odds.

"It might explain why it was Danny shouting my name. Why not Leo though?"

James shrugs, "Not enough data."

"Yeah. And after my problems and Zoe's I'm not experimenting. Thanks James."

"No problem."

Hard work on day two for Matilda and Daniel ended with a boxed in set of robots and the van loaded with tons of books, CDs, charts, circuit boards, tools and other things. Some of the tools they had no idea about but they looked important enough to take. Matilda found a melted transformer and went to throw it until Daniel said a melted case and wires still going to connectors was way better than nothing. Many things were burnt but if it had any writing and didn't fall apart when picked up it was saved. Daniel had explained that a single sentence on a burnt document could be the important link between two sets of otherwise unrelated facts.

The building was huge, thankfully the locations with anything worth saving were limited to a few key spots. They were now in the back left of the building.

"Sorry Dan, I need to go again."

"Again? You only went an hour ago."

"Must be all the healthy eating."

"LOL. One or two?"

"Two."

"Okay, I'll dig a hole."

[Chapter-30](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-30-2)


	30. Chapter 30

Mattie had decided to have dinner in bed and watch TV. Nobody had done anything wrong, she just needed some time alone to chill out.

"Do you think she's alright?"

Leo looked up at Laura, "I hope so. Mia thinks she might have had a sunspot glitch. They are saying a warm spell hits Tuesday."

Danny taps on his phone, checks an app. "I think we've seen the start of it already. The sensors around the lake says the temperature is up two degrees and the microphones have been hearing noises."

"What sort of noises?"

"The ice moving. I think it might get unstable and start cracking."

Matilda had the seat back as far as possible, which wasn't that far. "This is the last night right?"

"Yup. Once last check in good light tomorrow to be sure we've not missed anything and we can head home."

"Glad to hear it as these seats are bloody uncomfortable after a few hours."

Sleep came easily enough. Staying asleep didn't. She'd dreamt of the four sat at the table under the roof section coming out of their trance like state and turning their heads to see her. Or breaking their way out of the L shaped seated coffin they sat in behind her.

Mattie couldn't sleep either. A cocktail of excitement and nervous anticipation was keeping her out of the bedroom. The new build machine was in the process of being built. It would make animals. Not just rapidly printed draft quality reindeer for Cindy to cover in fake fur and one of the James to wire up like a toy. These would be walking, barking, eating dogs. One of the many skeleton types Leo had seen in the museum was that of wolves and dogs. The basic skeleton was the same for them all, would be resized and tweaked to fit the breed being built.

George turned to Mattie, "One design element needed a change, the food processor. Or rather the input to it."

"How so?"

"We stand or sit. Gravity helps force things into it. I've had to make something like an intestinal tract to go in front. It's got pockets inside that resist food movement in one direction, they'll move back and forth a bit like a caterpillar walking."

"Controlled by what?"

"A desire for energy."

"You might want to change that."

"Why?"

"We can eat a meal and the food processor gets going on it straight away, stores the energy."

"Yes."

"How many meals will be able to sit in this caterpillar like tract and be fermenting or rotting away. Dragon burps?"

"A good point. I better rethink that."

"Just shorten it or make sure it empties into the processor soon after eating. What other changes?"

"It'll build the dog standing on hind legs in as close to a human stance as possible. It's so the processes don't have to change. The pre-skinning wiring will be different. For these." He holds out a hand.

Mattie takes the tiny plastic bottle and looks at the microscopic chip inside, a small hair coming from the middle. The chip was larger than the ones used on human synths. "What's changed?"

"My latest invention. Meet the Dracula chip."

"It's a vampire?"

"I was in a playful mood when the idea came to me. It steals power from anything electrical next to it. Tiny amounts per chip. Added up quite a significant amount."

"From a large charge coil in a blanket."

"Or you or I."

"We could help charge them with a cuddle?"

"Yes."

"Would that chip work in is too?"

"With a similar change to the sensor interface, yes."

"Cool. If Leo was low on power and I started cuddling for power, what stops me from draining him to critical levels?"

George places a palm on his forehead, "Idiot George!!It's a good job we have a smart lady on the team. What does a dog do with a human in distress."

"Try and comfort it."

"Which in this case could make matters worse. We'll need some sort of handshake protocol. I'd like power, please approve."

"Couldn't it be bypassed?"

"I'm thinking it should happen at the chip level, burnt into the silicon, impossible to override."

"That would have another advantage."

"It would?"

"If I had those too and Scruff was on a charge blanket, me petting him, he could take power from the blanket and not me. Or even donate some of that power to me."

George turns and grins, "I like that, hence forth it shall be known as The Angel Chip."

"I like the original name."

"But that was all take take take. You give."

"True."

"So Angel Chip it is."

They stand and watch for hours in silence as the machine builds the new build machine.

[Chapter-31](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-31-2)


	31. Chapter 31

Matilda was the first to wake, the sun streaming in through the van windows. With Daniel still in a deep sleep she got out quietly and went for a wee. It was definitely warmer today, water was dripping from melting ice high up on the few standing sections of stone wall.

Despite the dreams she felt more comfortable with the place today. The forrest and lake were beautiful, the place so tranquil. The only sounds were of the odd bird call and ice on the lake cracking. Somehow she felt that she belonged here. Daniel's house was lovely, but the location stank what with it being in the same road as hers. Sure they'd be happy there for the time being. Ten grand for the chance to build something here though.. wow, that was a gift. They'd need some help with that.

Slowly she walked around the ruins picking up burnt wood and rolling stones to see if anything hid underneath. After twenty minutes of randomly moving things and picking some up more than once she got a bit more organised and cleared a patch of tiled floor, started making a neat pile. They'd got all the obvious stuff, this was the hunt for tiny clues.

Another half an hour passed before she found a scrap of burnt paper with some names in a neat handwriting. The sort her old headmaster used. It's picked up and carefully put to one side to dry. Another stone is lifted to reveal a small pocket book. It was soaked through so rather than risk opening it she also puts it with the scrap to start drying.

"ANGEL!"

"I'M OVER HERE DAN!"

Mattie turns rapidly to face George. "Please tell me you heard that!"

George turns and frowns, "Heard what?"

"The shouting!"

He shakes his head, "Nothing. I'll be right back." He sprints to the lift.

Mattie looks in the direction she'd heard the voice. If she was going mad, suffering some split personality disorder this could be the end. There was her most recent backup, the nine before that. But who was to say the fault hadn't occurred long before, rendering them all useless?

Matilda moved more rubble looking for more clues.

"Morning Angel. Found anything nice?"

"Hiya, a burnt scrap of paper with some names, a pocket book. They're both in need of drying out so be careful with them."

He watches her systematically clearing floor. "Good idea, I'll start another pile."

They work in silence for a while.

George runs back to Mattie with a patch cable, scalpel, skin spreader and skin packs in hand. "Still hearing things?"

"They stopped. What's that for?"

"A hard wired link between us both. We can use the Gigabit port under your hip skin to link to each other."

"Why not WiFi?"

"I want to hear everything without any compression code getting in the way."

"What d'you need to do?"

"Cut a tiny hole dead vertical so I don't slice sensor wires, use Fred's too to open it up just enough to get the plug in. A self amalgamating skin patch will reduce leakage. You'll need to do the same for me."

"Okay."

Daniel stood at the base of what would have been an outer wall and looked up. "Have you seen how the stuff around here is distributed?"

"Not from there. Seeing something interesting?"

"Maybe. Come see."

Matilda joined him, turned and looked up, then at the ground, then back up again. "Hmm."

"Good Hmm? Same Hmm as me?"

She gives him a sideways glance, "Maybe. If your Hmm is about slides."

"Where shall we start?"

In her mind she pictured the ceiling and floor above burning at one end faster than the other, the floor giving way such that everything stood on the floor slid towards the location of the pile before finally collapsing. It was either that or someone else had beaten them to the site and moved things, not found the robots. Matilda points, "Over there on the right."

"Moving stuff to there?" He also points.

"Sure."

Some bits of charred wood needed both of them to move out of the way. There was a metal medical trolley all bent out of shape. And tools Daniel couldn't comprehend. The tools were stuffed into jacket pockets.

"Oh my God! Dan, look at this."

"What've you found?"

"There's only half of it left but it looks like the schematic."

"Of what?"

"A head."

"File it." Daniel keeps picking up bits of burnt floor board and stacking them on his other arm. "There must have been a storm the day this fire took. It didn't look like the fire brigade put it out, things would have been shoved to the walls by the blast from the hoses."

"We'd make good detectives you and I. Another, it's a full one. A bit faded." She holds it up to the light. "Oh my God!"

"What's up?"

"It's got a name written in the corner, Niska. The hole in the map was someone picking a robot name!"

Daniel carefully steps around to take a look. "Niska. Sounds like a ladies name. Wow, is this really what's inside their heads? Fucking hell this looks awesome!" He licks his lips and steps back to where Matilda had left the bits to dry.

"Don't risk picking them up!"

"No need, I'm just looking at the bit of paper, no need to touch it.. I'd put money on it being from a shopping list. Mia. Ju. Niska Sca. Max Book. Fred Book. The line above is mostly missing but I'd put money on that being the l e and o of Leo."

"Any clue of what he got?"

"No, it's too burnt." He stands and looks towards the van. "Fuck me."

"Not until I've lost the weight." She regretted saying it the moment she stopped.

"Think about it."

Mattie stands and looks at the schematic. "A robot called Niska, name picked from a map at random with a pin. Ju. Sca. Books. Jumper and scarf? Who'd buy a robot a jumper.."

"Unless they were.."

"AWAKE! FRIGGING HELL DAN!"

Mattie spins around so fast it takes George by surprise. "You must have heard that!"'

"I did!"

"So I'm going mad. Or I'm hearing myself from my past? My ghost?"

"Try talking to it."

"Mattie?"

Nothing.

George turns, careful not to pull the patch cord linking them together. "All the times you've heard the voice, was it shouting?"

"Yeah. It was."

"Shout back."

Mattie shrugs. "Okay. MATTIE!"

Matilda drops the schematic and freezes. "Daniel. Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Me shouting Mattie."

"No?"

The shout happens again.

"You didn't hear that either?"

"No? Are you okay?"

"I think I'm being haunted."

"No such thing."

"Then I'm going crazy."

Mattie gives George a meh smile, "No answer."

"Then ask a question rather than make a statement."

"MATTIE! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Shaking like crazy and draining of all colour Matilda turns and looks in the direction she'd heard the voice. "I'M IN THE RUINS OF THE OLD HOUSE."

Mattie's and George's eyes pop.

"Frigging hell George! IS THERE A LAKE IN FRONT?"

"YES!"

"ARE YOU MY GHOST?"

"FRIGGING HELL! I WAS GOING TO ASK THE SAME! I'M ALIVE AND WELL THANKS! ARE YOU MY GHOST?"

"I'M ALIVE TOO NOW."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOW?"

"LONG STORY!"

Daniel looked oddly at Matilda, only hearing one side of a shouted conversation. "Who are you shouting at?"

"Myself."

"What?"

"Pass. Give me a moment. I'VE GOT TIME! WE'VE FOUND FOUR ROBOTS WE SUSPECT ARE CALLED MIA, NISKA, MAX AND FRED."

Mattie's eyes start to water. "Oh my good God. WHAT STATE ARE THEY IN?"

"GOOD! THEY WERE SAT AT A TABLE UNDER A FALLEN SECTION OF ROOF."

"THEY'RE POWERED DOWN?"

"THINK SO."

"A PRESS UNDER THE CHIN TURNS THEM ON. IF THEY RAN TOTALLY FLAT THEY'RE DEAD."

"WHY DID DAVID BUILD ROBOTS?"

"THEY'RE NOT ROBOTS. THEY'RE LIVING SYNTHETICS. ALIVE LIKE YOU AND ME."

"NO SHIT!"

"NO SHIT. IN MY WORLD THERE ARE MILLIONS OF THEM. ALL AWAKE NOW."

Matilda looks over at Daniel, "We're standing in a platinum mine. THAT LONG STORY, RUN IT BY ME."

"HOW'S LEO?"

"HOPEFULLY OKAY, WE LEFT BOWLS OF DRIED FOOD AND WATER."

Mattie looks at George, "Wtf? Bowls?"

"Ask her."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BOWLS?"

"FOR HIS FOOD."

"WHAT SORT OF FOOD?"

"CAT FOOD, WHAT ELSE?"

"Frigging hell. HE'S NOT HUMAN?"

"MY LEO'S A CAT! YOU"RE TALKING ABOUT LEO ELSTER?"

"YEAH! MY HUSBAND! WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU FOUND? ANY X-RAYS?"

"X-RAYS? FROM WHAT?"

"WHEN LEO DROWNED IN THE LAKE."

Matilda turned to look in the direction of the lake and had a horrible cold shiver. "THE REPORTS SAY LEO AND BEATRICE DROVE OFF, DAVID KILLED HIMSELF."

"IN MY WORLD LEO DROWNED, DAVID HID IN A BUNKER IN THE FORREST."

"WHERE? IT'S HUGE!"

"HANG ON!"

Mattie turns to George, "You've seen the spot, think you can work out GPS coords?"

The two have a shouting conversation for a while, Matilda says she and Danny will go have a look while there's still some sun shine.

Mattie looks at George, "Is this all being simulated in my head by rogue code or is this really happening?"

"I think it might be real. We need David." He pulls out his phone.

"Why?"

"To verify some facts about what they're seeing."

"Like what?"

"Anything you haven't seen and she has."

An hour and a bit later Matilda returns and shouts to say there's no bramble bushes anywhere in the forrest, no trap doors in a fifty meter radius of the GPS location given.

Mattie gives David a glum smile, "In her world you're probably dead."

"What about Leo?"

"Possibly still in the lake if things played out anything like this one. IS THE LAKE FROZEN OVER?"

Tears flow as she's told that it is, explains what might be in it.

Matilda looks horrified. "Dan, any way we can look through the ice?"

"Risky, we'd have to break holes through it and we don't have rope."

"SORRY, NO ROPE, TOO RISKY! I'VE GOT ICE SKATES SO CAN GET OUT ON THE ICE, NO WAY TO LOOK THROUGH IT."

"SKATES?"

"SOPHIE GAVE ME LESSONS."

"HOW IS SHE?"

"GOOD, WORKING IN FRANCE."

"TOBY?"

"WORKING ON AN OIL RIG."

"MUM AND DAD?"

"MUM'S SO SO, NO IDEA ABOUT DAD."

"WHY?"

So Dad had a wandering dick in her world too. Only with another fab not a synth. Fucking Idiot. Literally. Mum had given up the legal profession. What a shame. They had one thing in common. A desire to work and earn well, help others.

She turns to David, "If Leo's dead in her world, you too, does anyone have the right to sell it? She says it's up for 10K."

"The government I guess. Their rules might be quite different to ours. Their whole legal system might look quite alien to us."

Tears rolling down her cheeks Mattie looks away from the build machines and back towards the lake. "DO ME A FAVOUR. BUY IT. BUILD A STATUE IN LEO AND BEATRICE'S IMAGE AND STICK IT OUT FRONT OVERLOOKING THE LAKE."

The two worked out the the shouting only worked when they were reasonably close to each other. It only worked between the two women, George was able to hear via the diagnostics link. Matilda and Daniel worked hard to gather up as much remaining stuff as possible. David described where his lab had been in case parallel him had made the same decisions. The synths sounded identical from the descriptions given via Mattie.

Daniel looked around the cleared floors, "I think we're done. Can you ask her what the time and date are?"

They were exactly the same. He asked if it was possible to meet up again in a couple of weeks time, the Sunday morning. Mattie agreed.

[Chapter-32](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-32-2)


	32. Chapter 32

Matilda buckled up and got her phone out and dialled. "Hi, Mum, can you talk? How do you fancy working for someone else? Um.. a company called MDL. Muddle? Okay how about DML? Yeah I'm making it up. Laura, Matilda, Daniel. The one from school. That's him." She blushes a little.

Daniel waves to get her attention, "MLD. Mould. We're going to shape the future."

"Mum, how about MLD, Mould.. For frig's sake Mum, Jelly not bread! Yeah. Anyway, how do you fancy taking a leap of faith and working with us? Yeah. Me code, Dan hardware. Yup. Lawyer. Fucking hell Mum you were brilliant! You just let Dad take your eye off the ball at work at the critical moment. Come over tonight. Same road, number 127. Yeah, Dan's given me his spare room. No Mum! Sure."

She hangs up, "Mum's not eaten all day, asks if we can get a take away?"

"After the junk we've had? I'll cook. Before we go can you shout one more question?"

Daniel had totally overlooked the weight of all the books they'd loaded into the back. A substantial part two libraries had the van's suspension down to the bump stops.

"Pothole!" Every little one jarred the van and passengers backs.

"Cheers Angel." He steers to avoid it. "Why don't you share a house with your Mum?"

"Dad had us spend a week with him then a week with Mum after the divorce. I couldn't stand it, had to move out. Mum keeps hoping he'll see sense and come back."

"How long's it been?"

"Years. Way too many. He's married with a new kid."

"Crap. Why didn't you just stay at your Mum's full time?"

"And have to avoid Dad every time he picked up or dropped off the others? No th Pothole! No thanks."

"Was he that bad?"

"Yes." She looks out of the passenger window for a while. "I'd been in my place so long the thought of moving back just didn't feel right. I think Mum will be great for helping catalogue everything."

"And there's a hell of a lot of it. Where does she live?"

"Miles away on the other side of London."

"Do you fancy moving in with me?"

"I already have."

Daniel grinned, "I mean moving in moving in. Share a room and let your Mum have the spare. Or we make one of the rooms downstairs a bedroom."

"What happened to friends first?"

"Okay. Downstairs room. We pool all our resources and get MLD started."

"You're asking Mum to sell her house?"

"Rent it out. Get some money from it."

"Not a bad idea. It's a frigging excellent house." Matilda opened the glove box and took out the pen she'd seen days before and an old parking ticket. "MLD. Mould." She drew the MLD together, drew the O around it and a U under the lot. She then wrote SHAPING and under that THE FUTURE. "One temporary logo." It's passed over.

Daniel holds it to the steering wheel and glances down, "Nice! That's a keeper. I've always liked KISS."

"Keep It Simple Stupid?"

"That's it." He folds the ticket and slips it into his jacket for safe keeping.

The drive was slow and careful, Daniel having to break so far in advance of junctions and roundabouts due to the weight.

Daniel stretched and wriggled, "Getting all the books into the house will take ages. How do we get the robots in without anyone seeing?"

"Synthetics. They're not robots. They're living beings like us."

Daniel was so shocked he ran a red light and came close to wiping out a Volvo estate car. "Shit that was close! Living? As in thinking like us?"

"Yes. And so am I. Not here obvs. I mean in a synth body. In the world of the other voice I was human, got smashed up in a plane crash, got my mind transferred into a synth body. There's a growing number of us."

"Jesus. How horrible being in one of them."

"Apparently it's rather good. They all feel like us. Plus there's a number of benefits."

Danny turned onto the main road that led onto theirs. "When we visit Sunday week we need to have a way to transfer technical details, pinouts and simple specs."

"Over shouting? That's going to be a challenge. Hmm. Can I borrow your phone?"

"Sure. Good Hmm?"

"You said KISS. When Dad was a kid the Internet didn't exist. They used dialup and real low tech stuff."

"We covered it in my electronics class. X Modem transfers from BBS and the likes. No idea how it works, just remember the names."

"That's the.. got it. We ask them which compression techniques they know and if they know UU Encode and UU Decode."

"Which do what?"

"Convert binary data to text. We could add some sort of checksum so we know we've got each line right before we convert text back to binary."

Daniel turns into their road and a blue light illuminates the street. "Oh crap."

"Ambulance?"

"Old bill." He pulls over and stops, lowers the window as two officers get out. "Say whatever you want, just don't mention the ro.. synths."

"Evening Sir, can I see your license please?"

"Sure. I wasn't speeding was I?"

"No, driving an overloaded vehicle sir, your insurance won't be valid."

Matilda gives him a smile, "But we're only ten meters from our drive."

"Don't I know you? You work.."

"Yeah, it's me, you guys get your bagels at five right?"

"That's us. Ten meters you say?"

"Number 127."

"What's in the back?"

"Loads of old books."

"Why?"

"I'm a historian. And coder. When I'm not at work of course. I look for patterns in data. I'm going to see if the books can answer an old mystery."

"What's that then."

"What happened to Leo and Beatrice Elster."

"And I'm the plumb fairy. Open up."

Mattie frowned and undid her seat belt, got out, "Sure, see for yourself." The door is opened and a load of books start to slide out. She slams her body and arms against them and shouts for Daniel. "Sorry, they've shifted with the bloody potholes."

The policeman that had done all the talking laughs, "Okay bookworm. It's books. You still get a fine."

"I hope you have a proper reason to fine my client. You don't want to be tied up with hours and hours of form filling."

"MUM!"

"Hi Mats. Spot of bother?"

[Chapter-33](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-33-2)


	33. Chapter 33

Daniel helped push the books back in enough to get the door closed as the police drove off. "Hello Mrs Hawkins, I'm Daniel."

"Hello Daniel. Call me Laura. Bloody coppers. They're all terrible. Mention a form and they run a mile. Who are Leo and Beatrice Elster?"

"We'll talk inside while Dan cooks dinner. Did you drive?"

"Uber."

"Come in and sit down. What I'm about to tell you will sound like a mad fantasy.. I can assure you it's all very real."

Daniel pulls the logo from his jacket. "We need a limited company formed PDQ. This is the logo Angel designed for it."

Laura frowns, "Shaping the future? What have you invented?"

"We're about to reinvent the future." She takes a very deep breath. "With some help from Mattie Hawkins."

"Yourself?"

"It's a long weird story Mum. Dan, got any Gin in?"

Mattie grinned and pushed her dinner around the plate, "Thanks for coming back everyone. Thanks Mia, Soph, Mum for cooking. We help people right?"

Everyone agrees.

"No matter where they are?"

Again everyone agrees.

"No matter which world?"

There's silence. Joe eventually breaks it. "What do you mean which world?"

"Danny and James were right. The book is _two_ things. I think it's a trap for those that don't read it properly. A tool for those that do. And before you ask _no_ I have no intention of jumping from this to another. But I _am_ going to be getting messages through."

Toby looks horrified, "How do you know it's not an alien race looking for info to let them jump through and take over ours?"

"It's a parallel world that's similar to ours. Only her knob cock is a cock working on an oil rig. Soph is a dance teacher in Paris. Mum is a waitress, Dad, well let's not go there. Sorry Dad."

David nods, "In their world the factory hasn't been built, we think the car is at the bottom of the lake. I'm not in a mole hole so likely dead."

Mattie puts down her fork. "Imagine a world that's in a rut. For everyone. Globally. The fun's gone. Food is bland, technology stalled unless it's from a monopoly manufacturer called Apple or Microsoft. Do we help?"

Laura accepted the gin, "And you're saying you've got four of these in the van?"

"Yes Mum. David Elster invented them. We've got a way to talk to alternate him. Possibly alt you too. All via Mattie."

Laura takes a massive gulp of neat gin and pulls a face. "Another please. We better get them in."

"We've got tons of books to bring in before we can reach them. And we need to bring them in without anyone seeing. We don't want neighbours thinking we're bringing in dead bodies."

Laura took another large mouthful of gin and smiled, "Dinner plans?"

"Daniel was going to cook."

"Okay Dan, our man, you cook, Mats and I have a lot of catching up to do as we bring all your books in."

"Our books Mum."

At 4AM Laura puts down the last book, "Bloody hell Mats, when you said there were a lot you weren't kidding." She puts her hands on the small of her back and stretches. "I thought I got a workout walking miles and carrying plates of food."

Daniel got into the back of the van with a torch, closed the doors and got the wood away from the four synths. He spins around as Matilda opened it slightly.

"How's it going?"

"Okay. How do we carry them in with nobody seeing?"

"Got any spare bed sheets?"

"In the cupboard outside your room."

"I'll go get one, ask Mum to help guide you in as you reverse the van. We can put sheets up between the van and house."

"Won't that attract more interest from anyone that does pass?"

"Got a better idea?"

"Um.. yeah. Yeah I do actually. Remember sports day at junior school?"

"Sack races, egg and spoon."

"And running in pairs, shoe laces tied together."

"Eh?"

"I drive off and come back as if I've been to collect them. We bring blondie in with her arms over our shoulders, accuse her of being a lightweight. The brunette we link shoes so it looks like she's at least trying to walk."

Laura steps around the four synths. "They're so realistic. It's bloody spooky."

"You're best pals with this one Mattie says. Her name is Mia." Matilda rests a hand on the synths shoulder.

"She's beautiful."

"Made to look after Leo."

"Your cat?"

"Don't be daft. In her world Leo is her husband. In our's he's probably trapped in a car at the bottom of a lake. His father thought his wife had driven away, went crazy and topped himself."

"Bloody hell." Laura gently brushes Mia's hair to one side and smiles lovingly at the synth. "She's beautiful."

"You're repeating yourself Mum."

"Am I? Sorry. Do the others have names?"

"This one's Niska, or Nis. I _think_ this one's Fred, this one Max."

She turns and grabs her glass. "I'm in. I'll give my notice tomorrow. If Dan can help me move my things I'll put the house up for rent."

"Cool. It will be good seeing you on a regular basis again. I missed you."

"This Mattie, she really wants to help?"

"In their world I'm Doctor Mattie Elster-Hawkins, AI and PTSD specialist. And now a synth."

"WHAT?"

"I almost died, got saved, now live in a body like this."

"Plastic?"

"It doesn't feel like it to her she says."

[Chapter-34](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-34-2)


	34. Chapter 34

On the Sunday a fortnight after their first visit Daniel hired the van again and drove the two ladies to the site.

Laura was on the window side, Matilda in the middle. "He's a keeper Mats. Your cooking is wonderful Daniel."

"Thanks Laura."

"How will this work?"

"I have to stand close by to where she is, shout for her to hear me."

"How will she know where you'll be?"

"We've arranged to be in the same spot."

"Good idea."

The iPod Shuffle played away. This time she had a USB phono charge cable to top it up when not playing.

Laura looked around the ruin, "What a place. It will be sad to see the police pull a car out of the lake. But if that's where they are the deserve a prober burial."

"HI!"

She turns to see her daughter waving.

"She's here! Dan, she's asking if I have a pen and pad."

Daniel shakes his head, "Nope."

Laura pulls an iPad Mini from her jacket. "Good job Soph gifted me her old iPad then."

"Awesome, MATTIE, WE'VE GOT AN IPAD MINI. OKAY. ONE MOMENT!" She holds a hand out. "Dan! Come here buddy, she's got something for us both. You need to verify details." She waits for Daniel to join them both. "OKAY. FIRE AWAY!"

She starts drawing, "BASEBALL CAP. TWO RODS OF TUNGSTEN.." the list goes on and on. "PEKO FARRAS?"

Danny shakes his head, "Picofarad."

"WHAT DOES IT DO?"

There's a long silence.

"HOLY SHIT! FOR REAL? FRIGGING HELL! AWESOME! I WISH THERE WAS A WAY TO DO IT IN REVERSE, FOR US TO SEND TO YOU. YOU THINK SO? COOL!"

Danny and Laura exchange glances.

"OKAY. WE'LL BUILD IT AND BE BACK IN ANOTHER FORTNIGHT. THANKS! TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. LOVE TO ALT TOBS, SOPH, MUM AND DAD. BYE FOR NOW!"

Laura looks like someone had shoved a broom up her behind. "Mats? Joe's with me in the other world? Is that it?"

"Yes. That's it for the moment."

Danny looks at the drawing. "What is this?"

"Remember your laser and mouse idea? A way to get my old flat Internet?"

"Of course."

"Mattie is a synth. Can shout in modulated tones. I'll hear it. This will detect it and output a 1 or 0. You build it, I write the code. She'll send a tsunami of data."

"At what rates?"

"She says she'll start slow with test data, increase until we see parity errors and back off a bit. They'll send proper wiring schematics for the charge cable, photos, audio messages from everyone. She says we mustn't attempt to power them up until we've got _all_ of the data."

"Why?"

"They might have felt they had no place in the world. We need to show them that they do in the alternate world, that we can help reboot our world. For everyone's benefit. Oh, mustn't forget, those component values are a must, no substituting with something close, George, David and Danny say it either won't work or will be too slow otherwise."

"Understood, best components possible."

"And there was one other message. From their Danny. Head of DCL. Their hindsight is our foresight."

"Sounds good. Any others?"

"Just hear you in another fortnight."

"Cool, come on then, the sooner I order parts the sooner I can get making." Danny turns to head to the van, sees something he'd not noticed before. "Hang on ladies." He goes to the large pile they'd been at last a fortnight ago. A large group of beams are lifted. "Oh shit."

"What have you found?"

"A reason to call the police."

Laura starts to walk over, "My speciality. What have you found?"

"What I suspect was once David Elster."

George had disconnected his side of the two patch cables that joined with a coupler. He handed Mattie the coupler and micropore tape. "I hope the Danny in their world is as good as the Danny in ours."

"Me too. I wonder what baud rate your contraption will be able to reach? What inspired it?"

"Something I remembered from my computer lessons, the teacher showed us a load of old tech, an acoustic coupler."

"Old dial up?"

"Yeah."

David did a powerful shiver shake.

"Are you alright Dad?"

"I don't know Leo, it felt like someone just walked over my grave."

"Is that really a thing?"

Mattie lowers her top to hide the patch cable. "It might be. ARE YOU STILL THERE?"

Matilda spun around, "YES?"

"LET US KNOW WHEN THE POLICE SEARCH THE LAKE, I WANT LEO POWERED DOWN."

"WHY?"

"HAVE YOU JUST FOUND DAVID'S BODY?"

"WE'VE FOUND SOMEONE'S. HOW DID YOU KNOW?"

"DOES YOUR WORLD HAVE THE EXPRESSION SOMEONE'S JUST STEPPED ON MY GRAVE?"

"YES. WE'LL CALL THEM RIGHT NOW."

"YOUR EXCUSE FOR FINDING HIM?"

"WE'RE BUYING THE ESTATE."

"COOL! BUNNY YOU SHOULD POWER DOWN. SORRY THAT WAS FOR MY HUSBAND NOT YOU. TALK SOON, I'LL STAY HERE."

Laura looked at her phone, "My signal's dropped, either of you got one?"

Matilda checked hers, "Nope. Dan?"

"Yeah. No 3G but I've got one bar."

"That will do." She accepts the phone and dials. "Hello. Police please.. The ruins of the Elster Estate. Can't you look it up?"

Daniel shows her the Lycos map he'd screen shot at home.

"Hi, we're at the Elster Estate, we're looking to buy it, have just found a body. No! It looks like they died in the fire years ago. Yes. Laura Hawkins. Lawyer. Representing myself, my daughter Matilda and her partner, business partner, Daniel." She puts the phone to her chest, "What's your surname Dan?"

"Candlin."

"Candling."

"No G."

"Sorry Candlin, not Candling.. Tomorrow? No, it has to be today, we don't want any animals disturbing the crime scene. No tomorrow won't do. We'll be here. Thank you." She hangs up and hands the phone back, "It's no wonder our world is in such a bloody mess. Let's wait in the van."

They listen to Matilda's shuffle for ages.

Laura sits forward, "What's this?"

"Good question." The middle button is pressed and it announces Lola's Theme, Pete Tong. "Eh? Since when has he done classical music covers? Sounds good though. Do we risk going for lunch?"

"If you two stay here I'll go get something."

"Thanks Dan. Nothing too bad, just some fruit and nuts if you can't find anything healthy. Water too please."

"Okay Angel."

As they watch Daniel go Laura gives her daughter a hug, "How much weight have you lost now?"

"Eight pounds. Dan says I have to drink plenty water and not lose it too fast or my skin won't shrink back."

"He's a good lad. Bloody brilliant cook too. It's a shame you didn't go out together all those years ago."

"Yeah. If we had though.. we might never have found this place. Imagine a house here, not having all those car fumes coming through the windows."

"True. This.. ability you have. I think it needs to be kept strictly to the three of us. The Scientology nuts will have a field day if they find out."

"Oh God, I hadn't even thought of that. I wonder how religious people are in their world?"

"One of many things to ask." Her phone chimes. "Sounds like I've got a signal again."

"That was a text tone, check it."

Laura goes to fish her phone out of her handbag, "I really should throw a lot of this junk away. Where's it got to.. ah. They've accepted our offer! Mats! It's ours!"

"Frigging hell! That was fast!"

"Someone's probably pocketed the money."

"Another question to ask. Is their world as frigging corrupt as ours? Does anyone other than them give a shit?"

"Hopefully."

They turn at the sound of a vehicle on gravel, expecting to see Daniel in the van.

"At bloody last. Let me do the talking Mats."

[Chapter-35](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-35-2)


	35. Chapter 35

Leo grinned as the new build machine door opened. This was build four. Jack, Scruff and Trixie had bodies built for the day they'd need them. This was his. Cosplay Cat. The RWR Tiger. The machine let go and it flopped forwards onto the large blow up mattress that had inflated seconds before. "Fracking awesome!"

Mattie grinned, played with her wig bunches, "Go on then! Get on the mattress and switch bodies."

Leo kneels down and runs a command on the laptop, "Over WiFi it'll take a while."

"How long?"

"If Danny's used the close proximity multiband chipset maybe ten minutes?"

"Cool." She starts roller skating around the factory floor, Robots With Rayguns playing on her replica Sony Walkman headphones.

Laura watched Matilda as the policeman returned to his car to radio for the divers. "I think he's suspicious."

"Of us? It's a logical place to look if they were never seen again, the vehicle not relicensed or scrapped."

"Agreed. But they never like being handed answers on a plate, be made to look stupid."

"But they are."

The policeman can be seen talking and nodding, open the side door and reach inside. He pulls out a club hammer, lots of iron rods and several rolls of tape.

"Oh frig." she turns her back to him, "Mum, pretend I've not seen that."

"Why?"

"You'll see. Tell me when he starts using them."

The two talk about Daniel and his salmon salad, the other fish dishes they were being treated to.

"Now Mats."

She walks up to the blue and white tape, "YOU WANT TO TAPE OFF THE CRIME SCENE? YOU LOT WILL TAKE FOREVER! THE ONLY CRIME IS THAT YOU DIDN'T INVESTIGATE PROPERLY YEARS AGO!"

"Mats don't shout, they're only doing their job."

"A job that should have been done.."

"By other people that have probably retired years ago, give these guys a chance."

"Okay Mum. WE'LL BE BACK! ESPECIALLY AS WE OWN THE ESTATE!"

[Chapter-36](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-36-2)


	36. Chapter 36

Mattie had done a quick dance with her Tiger strutting his stuff. They then sat down together replicating the RWR album cover.

Max chimped the shot, "Purrrrfect."

"Haha, thanks Maxxie."

"I'll tweet it to them in a moment."

Mattie gave him a stroke, "Want to stay in this body or jump back into your human one? We don't know how long it will be until they disturb the car, assuming they find it. David's shake was pretty major. Who knows what would happen with you."

"I'll stay in here. Power me back up when you know."

"I'll miss you." She kisses his cheek, "Sweet dreams Tiger."

"I won't dream if I'm off."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah. See you on the flip side." He powers down and flops onto the mattress.

Mattie didn't move from the spot. After a couple of hours two James set up a table and water dispenser, carried a kettle, large catering container of coffee and sugar from the kitchen. Every ten minutes for the rest of the day Mattie shouted HELLO. No reply came. On day two family took turns to sit with her, talk about the past, their future. All the time the conversation punctuated with that one word.

On day six Mia sat down beside her, her second turn at keeping Mattie company. "I've got an idea for you."

"Oh yes?"

"Do you think singing loud would work?"

"Why?"

"Do you think they have an Adele in their world?"

"No idea. I know very little of their world yet. Why?"

"Sing Hello like she did in her TV advert that announced 25."

"Haha, that might freak her right out."

"It might, or she might like it. Hello, it's me. I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet to go over everything. Or you could use Hello from the other side, I must have called a thousand times, to tell you I'm ready, to share everything that we've done. But when I call you never seem to be home."

Mattie chuckles and claps. "Oh I like that. I think I'll just use an Adele sounding Hello until she replies, then use the second version."

"More coffee?"

"Please!"

As Mia's shift ends Astrid sits down. "Thanks Mia. How's things with you?"

Astrid does a little shrug, "We're good. How about you?"

"Six days and no reply. I hope she's okay."

"Of course she is."

"We can't know that, the connection only works when we're close."

Astrid places a hand on hers, "Have some faith. Their Danny needs to build your device, they may not have drone drops like us. And the police need to do their things. They might not have a Pete, Karen or Beamer Boys to call on."

Mattie shrugs, "You're right of course. HELLO! This could take weeks. Months if a part is on back order or the police delay because they've got more important cases." She strokes the inert Tiger. "I want my Bunny back but don't want him hurt by his alt self being disturbed."

"You're all pretty robust."

"It's not the physical damage I'm worried about."

"Oh. Nis did say he used to have bad .. albtraum.. um.. nightmares."

"Yeah. Which is why the PTSD machine was born, now the VR system."

Astrid smiles widely, "Now Danny and Toby are on the same side as Yasmin they're in there all the time. Your brother is getting quite fit."

"I bet."

"You know he's using a full scale blunt heavy sword to get the full effect?"

"He is? Nobody said. I wouldn't mind seeing that."

"I'll sneak in and film him on my phone."

"Cool. Thanks. Anyone chopped his head off?"

"No, he's done it to plenty players."

"I bet he has."

They chat about music, the sorts of things played in the Berlin night clubs. After a good long talk Astrid yawns and leans on Leo, starts stroking his fur.

"Soft isn't he."

"Wonderful. If Niska had a cat body I'd curl up against her every night."

"You don't already?"

"I didn't say it right. I do."

"So say I'd _still_ curl."

"Thanks."

Mattie had an image pop into her head, a naked Astrid on top of the sheets, and arm and leg over a big snow leopard. "Hmm. Nice."

"What's nice?"

"Would you be offended if I got Emily to paint a picture that's just popped into my head? You're naked but it's reasonably tasteful."

Astrid rests her chin on Leo's head, "I wish I could do your head bump thing."

Mattie gets her phone out, "Blast, it's flat. If you can get me a charger I'll sent it to the phone's bump app."

"I'll get you a charger in a bit. I'll wait until Emily's painted it. I think she'll like painting that." She gives Mattie a knowing wink and nod.

"You've not done anything to get her into hot water with Danny?"

"No," she yawns, "Nis and I don't need a fourth person, Odi can only just cope with us two."

"He's finding it hard?"

Astrid yawns again, "Very hard. Almost painfully so."

Mattie frowns and realised if she was a fab she'd be blushing. Too much information. Although it was her that was embellishing the facts, not Astrid. "I wonder if there's an alt you in their world. And if she's single. If there is would she want to be there when their Niska is powered up?"

Astrid yawns even harder, "If there is I hope she likes the idea as much as I did, once I was over the shock." She closes her eyes, "It was quite a shock."

"HELLO!"

[Chapter-37](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-37-2)


	37. Chapter 37

Niska arrives to take over from Astrid, finds her fast asleep. "I'm sorry Mattie."

"No worries. She's tired. And I'm unlikely to get a reply at this time of night."

"So why keep going twenty four seven?"

"If I stop I'll think about Leo too much. The big soppy cat. Speaking of cats, if you see Ems can you ask her to swing by?"

Daniel put the soldering iron in the stand. "Done. I reverse engineered her circuit. It will send this pin high for a tone of 850Hz and low for 750Hz. If there's a gap it will swing to ground."

"Okay."

"This little circuit changes that to a binary 00 if no sound, 10 or 01 for the tones, 11 if she sends both tones at once."

"I'll have my code ignore the 00 and 11 then. I just need to program your little Digispark and write some code to pull the binary off the USB port and start building bytes."

Laura walked into the room in pyjamas, "You kids have fun, I need my beauty sleep."

"Night Mum."

"Night Laura." He looks at the page open on his laptop, "I know I should get some sleep but this is too exciting. Did she describe how many start, stop and parity bits there'd be."

"No. Frig. Um.. I can record raw bits and have a routine run on them after. If we assume eight to a byte like us, then if the first test is long enough my code could work out the best fit assuming it's all ASCII."

"Cool. How long is it going to take to code?"

"The Digispark, minutes. The other code. Maybe an hour to write and debug?"

He yawns heavily, "I'll pop the kettle on."

"When you're done download Audacity and start making a sound file to play to me."

"Um. How?"

"Search Lycos for audacity tone generator. Make the two tones. Then search for a web page that will convert text to binary. Stick together blocks of tone until you've got the message done."

"Okay." He stands and heads for the kettle. "If we're limited to those two tones then it will be slow. You'll need to hear a few cycles to register a bit. If five are enough that's one fifty bits a second, eighteen bytes a second. Um.. fifteen hours to send a megabyte."

"Frig. That's slow."

"I wonder how many tones you could recognise at once?" The kettle is half filled.

"Maybe not as many as we'd like, that's how audio compression gets files so small. We might think we hear a steady tone with a drum kick in the middle when in fact the tone can be missing for some parts of it, our brain fills in the gaps. It still might be worth a test though. We'd need another circuit."

"Good job I ordered lots. It was cheeper to order one hundred of everything than ten."

"That's frigging nuts. Why?"

"Hundreds come on a machine roll, tens need to be individually picked by staff from draws. Staff time equals cost."

"I guess so."

Daniel gets some fresh mugs out, "What's your singing voice like?"

"Okay, our drama teacher gave me extra lessons."

"So you could sing aaAAaAAAAaAaAa?"

"Yeah. You're thinking we send something back?"

"Yup."

"Like what?"

"A low rez photo saying Thanks!"

"Not until I've lost more weight."

"You've already lost a good amount."

"On my face, not around the hips and bum."

"I'd send a photo of the seven of our faces, not arse cracks!"

"Seven?"

"Us interleaved with the synths. They might look different in their world."

"Oh. I suppose so."

Daniel pours the water into the filter paper and watches the coffee percolate. "Anything on Lycos as to how many tones a human can hear at once I wonder?"

"I'm almost done with the Digispark, give me a min."

"Don't worry, I'll look in a sec."

An hour and a bit later with his eyelids feeling heavy Daniel looks up from his laptop, "Sound file ready. How's your code?"

"Another min or two to find a typo that's stopping it from compiling."

"Okay. I'll find some headphones."

Mattie smiled at the couple sleeping by her tiger. Niska didn't need sleep in the way Astrid did, copied her to be social. She sang her HELLO even though it was almost 2AM.

Daniel pulled an old pair of AKG headphones from his bedside cupboard. He'd not used them for months. They were great at blocking out surrounding noise if you held them tight against your head. The quarter inch to 3.5mm adapter make the plug insanely long but it would do.

Back down stairs he finds the room empty. "Angel?"

The door to the downstairs toilet opens, "Did you just call me?"

"Yeah, Angel."

"Good, not alt Daniel then."

"Code done?"

The question got a great smile, "It is."

"Cool, let's give it a test."

Headphones plugged in he passed them across the table. "My Lycos told me it's an appropriate message to send."

Cap and headphones on she talks a little louder. "Ready." The tones play, quite slowly. Like the first time the Close Encounters tune is played to the aliens. There's a thumbs up to confirm it's done. "Okay, bitstream recorded. Now the decode.. working.. 8 bits, no parity, start or stop bit. hello, world?"

"Fucking hell! First time! Whoo hoo!" He half stands and punches an imaginary person in the gut, "Take that rut!"

"It wasn't exactly fast."

"Who gives a monkey's arse, the _method_ is sound. Ha. Sound. Get it?"

Matilda smiled, shook her head and laughed, "Yeah Dan, I got it. Let me back this up to my USB key just in case. Then it's bed time. I'm knackered."

"Knackered is what you'll be once you've done your morning exercises."

"Can't I have a day off?"

"Want to trim down or not?"

"Okay. Extra hour in bed?"

'Go on then."

Coffee dropped onto the side unit Matilda got a little pocket diary from under the mattress. Under the covers she pulled out the pen from its spine, flicked through the pages to the current date and wrote: Contact with alt me made. Dan's made hardware, my code's done. Initial test passed. FIRST TIME! More testing tomorrow after exercise. Next time we'll receive data! FROM ANOTHER FRIGGING WORLD! Need to get Mum to contact police find out what the frig is going on with OUR ESTATE!!

In the space below she draws a large circle and writes MLD inside, draws a semicircle shaped U underneath. To its right she draws another circle. Inside she draws the D on it's back, the L to the right, a semicircle U underneath and the M small at the top. The M is scribbled out and drawn small at the bottom of the circle. A bow-tie like shape for the Mould left eye winking smilie. Leo stood, arched his back and slowly creeped up the bed.

She lowered the diary, "I'm not a blind mouse you daft animal."

Leo froze and eyed the pen.

"No, you're not having it.." Pen slid back into her Peggy Brand diary she reaches over and pushes it under the mattress. A couple of sips of coffee later the lamp is switched off and she wriggles under the nice thick duvet. "Night Leo. Sweet dreams."

[Chapter-38](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-38-2)


	38. Chapter 38

Astrid stretches and strokes Leo, smiles softly and mumbles. Niska opens her eyes slightly and lifts her head, frowns.

"Morning sleepy heads."

Astrid smiles, eyes still shut, "Morning Mattie."

"Odi came up for his turn, we had a good chat."

Niska's eyes open fully, "About what?"

"Don't worry, nothing about what the three of you do behind closed doors. Just history stuff, things we might want to tell the guys in the other world. It was a really useful chat actually. We spent hours working out a script, then went through it multiple times condensing it down to fewer and fewer words. Hopefully if they have the same compression methods as us we'll be able to send it quickly.

Matilda woke and reached for the cold coffee. It wasn't there. "What the.." in it's place was a gift wrapped box. On the top was a PostIt note. It's peeled off. Eyes rubbed and several good blinks later it's read. "Dan asked me to put this in your room. Have a shower, get dressed to go out and come downstairs. No exercises this morning. Love Mum."

She yawns and has a good stretch, puts the note to one side and picks up the box. It was immaculately wrapped in silver paper with tiny little printed flowers. The Sellotape is carefully peeled off and the paper removed. The box said iPhone 12 Plus.

"Awe Dan! A decent phone at last!"

Legs swung out she puts her feet on the floor and feels something else. Looking down she sees another note on some very plush slippers: This one is from me. A very belated Happy Birthday Mats, Love Mum xx.

Matilda pulls open the box and gets out the phone. Dan had set it up for her, it was fully charged and there were two text messages on the lock screen, one from Dan, one from Mum. "Awesome! 10:34? No alarms set I guess."

A note inside the box said her unlock code was 264351. Which came from spelling out Angel1. Unlocked she finds a few apps on the home screen; Music, Lycos Search, Lycos Maps, iTunes, Bandcamp, FLAC Player, Voice Recorder and Uber. She taps the Music icon and finds all of the music from the Shuffle synchronised to it.

Excitedly she goes to the top of the stairs, "Thanks guys! Love the phone and slippers, I'll be down ASAP!"

"Morning Mats, Dan's going to make you breakfast, the police called, they've finished at the lake."

"Did they find anything?"

"We'll give you all the details on the way over."

Shower on she stripped off and looked at herself in the mirror. The weight loss was obvious, two pounds a week didn't sound like much but it showed in the right places already. With his help she'd hopefully get back the body she had in her late twenties or early thirties. Her early twenties would probably be an ask too far but brilliant if possible.

She washed quickly under the warm water and pictured the lake and trees. Home. Apart from the first home she grew up in it was the only place that made her feel like she was there.

She dries quickly and wraps her hair in the towel. She opens the door slightly and calls out, "Both of you downstairs still?"

"Yes Angel!"

She does a fast run into her room and closes the door.

Laura grins at Daniel, "Bloody hell, I've not heard her do that in years."

"Done what?"

"Bathroom to bedroom streak."

"She'll be down in a few minutes then. Good, breakfast is almost done."

Matilda opens the underwear draw and gasps, "Mum?" There was another note in her hand writing: Dan says the best time to start something new is now. So here's some sexy underwear. Bloody huge hint dropped. Love MUM xx.

The MUM was underlined. Why? Then the penny dropped. "Mum. No pressure from family then!"

New underwear on she pulls open the tshirt draw to find a new top and yet another note. "Moth holes NOT included. Dan xx" she had a little chuckle and slipped it on.

Jeans, socks and a jumper later she headed downstairs. "Something smells good."

"Morning Angel, can you pack the laptops?"

"Sure. Shame our hat thing only picks up two tones at the moment."

"That will have to do. Maybe they'll have some more ideas when you talk about sending simultaneous tones."

There was a large shoulder bag sat on the table waiting and a Maplin bag.

"What's in this?"

"12volt to mains inverter and two of the longest mains extensions I could get. We'll be able to power the laptops from the van."

"Neat! What's for breakfast? It smells great."

"Home made salmon and cream cheese bagels. All home made."

"You baked?"

"Yup."

"And caught the fish?"

"Out of the pond in the garden."

"What pond?"

"Exactly. The fish came from your shop. Which reminds me, Laura phoned you in sick."

Laura turns to her daughter, nods at Daniel and mouths Keeper. Mattie smiles and nods, makes a heart shape with both hands. He sees neither, his attention on the worktop.

[Chapter-39](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS/Chapter-39-2)


	39. Chapter 39

The drive was high spirited, the excitement and anticipation palpable. Matilda had music playing from her phone, held to the dash with a large U grip.

"That was so delicious Dan, thanks."

"You're welcome Angel."

"Thanks for the phone again, it's brilliant."

Laura makes a heart sign on her lap with both hands, holds it there until she gets a elbow in the ribs from her daughter.

They get to the site to find the crime scene tape gone.

"What did they find Mum?"

"A car with two bodies. Confirmed to be Leo and Beatrice Elster. So sorry Mats, your friends suspicions were right. The one in the ruins was David."

She wipes a tear, "Then we give them a proper burial. Here. And build a statue for the three of them looking over the lake. There must have been better times they enjoyed as a family before things went wrong."

'I think they'd need a proper burial at a church."

"Sure about that? Can you research it?"

"Sure."

Daniel gets out, goes to the back and gets out their bags.

The three set up the inverter, two long mains leads and check the power indicators were lit. Daniel leaves the engine running as they head into the ruins.

"Frigging hell!"

The three look around the site, not a single bit of burnt wood, loose broken stone or brick remained.

"They've removed _everything_."

"Good job we had the van to clear out the good stuff first."

"That's an understatement!"

Daniel sets the bag down and gets Matilda's laptop out, has it plugged in and powering up quickly.

"Frigging hell!" Matilda does a shiver shake, "That was spooky."

"What happened?"

"Mattie just _sung_ Hello! It was beautiful but the sort of thing to give you goosebumps!"

"Sing hello back!"

She took a deep breath, "HELLO, IT'S ME."

They watch her listening to a reply, unable to hear it themselves. Her expression was one of sheer joy.

"Frigging hell! They have an Adele too! Dan, get the cap ready! She wants to send a test! MATTIE, THE POLICE HAVE FINISHED, SO SO SO SORRY TO REPORT THE BODIES OF LEO, BEATRICE AND DAVID HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED."

Dan moved the fastest he'd ever done, got the circuits connected and cap to his Angel. "Code running, ready to capture raw bits."

They watch her for minutes. She just looks out at the lake and waits.

"Mats? Everything okay?"

"No idea Mum. No messages yet."

Laura looks around and sees a suitable bit of low broken wall to sit on.

The minutes pass. "HELLO?". Minutes become an hour. She sits on the floor and crosses her legs. "HELLO?.. Shit. Maybe that wasn't the message to start our conversation with."

The hour becomes two.

"I've got a bad feeling about this Angel."

"Me too Dan."

Laura sighs, stares at the ground for a while, "At least we've got a nice place to build a new house on away from the fumes in the city."

The cap is removed and dropped onto the floor. "Meh."

Daniel smiles, "That's you in the other world."

"What?"

"Mattie Elster-Hawkins. Meh."

"Yeah." She leans back to straighten her legs and get up. "YES! STILL HERE!" She scrambles for the cap. "WHAT! SHIT! SORRY! Guys, their David had a heart attack!"

"Oh shit!"

She raises a hand to say she was listening to Mattie again. "OK. They're building him a new body right now. Harun had a design ready?" She goes a little red. "They got a backup of his mind done before a second stroke killed him so he'll be okay."

"Killed but will be okay? Backup?"

"Yes Mum. It's how Mattie me is a synth."

Laura just raises eyebrows.

"YES, WE'RE RECORDING.. WE'LL CAPTURE BITS THEN DECODE." She closes her eyes. "That sounded familiar? Dan, run a decode, mode 2."

Daniel does so and cries with laughter, "They had a Brian Kernighan too? Fucking Awesome!"

"Dan?"

"Hello, world."

"HELLO, WORLD. YES MATTIE! THAT WAS THE SAME MESSAGE DAN TESTED WITH! I KNOW, GREAT COINCIDENCE! Mode one again Dan... Okay decode."

"Gifts for Good."

"GIFTS FOR GOOD. Awesome.. YES. WE'LL ALL AGREE TO THAT. FASTER. One Dan."

"Recording."

"Decode."

"Start up charge current for Mia, Niska, Fred and Max will be 10amps if the battery was at zero. Their minds will be dead. If only 6amps there was enough charge when they shut down, they'll boot okay into consciousness."

"START UP CHARGE.. LAST WORD WAS CONSCIOUSNESS. READS OKAY. YES. FASTER STILL. BY THE WAY, DAN THINKS WE COULD RECEIVE MORE BITS AT ONCE IF YOU USE SEVERAL DIFFERENT TONES. AND WE CAN SEND TO YOU IF I SING TONES. YES, MUCH SLOWER.. HE'S GOT COMPONENTS TO BUILD LOTS. A PHOTO OF US ALL. PC. YES. ZIP? COOL. WE'LL GET ONE READY FOR NEXT TIME. SAME." She gives them two thumbs up. "Same compression code. Mode 1. She says she's sending short speed tests."

Twelve minutes later they had the ideal transmission speed worked out, confirmation that both worlds used the same zip compression. They could get away with three cycles not five. Nine hours for one megabyte. Thankfully Mattie said the zip compression was working well.

"Mode 1 again Dan, four files in a zip archive on their way, a condensed history lesson, instructions on how to make their backup device hardware, code for the laptop and the minimum laptop spec. It runs Linux?"

"Recording. What the fuck is Linux?"

"DAN ASKS WHAT IS LINUX?.. shit. An operating system. Dan, Mac OSX?"

"Never heard of it."

"WE'VE NEVER HEARD OF EITHER OF THEM.."

"Google Dan?"

"What's that?"

"WHAT'S THAT? IPHONES, YES GOT THOSE. UM APPLE OS? WINDOWS. JUST THOSE TWO. IOS? NO. WINDOWS AND APPLE OS. NO JUST THE ONE LYCOS SEARCH ENGINE. IT IS? COOL! Dan, she say's there's a free operating system anyone can use and improve. It's Open Source whatever that is. HOW BIG! Shit that would take forever to transfer. WAY TOO BIG. OKAY. What the.. SAY THAT AGAIN? She say's Leo's currently a tiger, he's about to switch back to his human body, they'll send photos soon that explain it. So he's currently also a cat? That's f'ed up. She's about to send the four file archive, they'll brainstorm ways to increase the bandwidth in both directions and add some form of acknowledgement and checksum. She says there's a bright new world on its way. It will take a few hours for this file, someone better get the coffees in. They'll build a minimal Linux boot disc image and send it over a number of visits. Does our zip support multipart archives?"

Danny nods.

"DAN SAYS YES." She frowns, "Another for you Dan, what's the CPU type in our laptops."

"Super clocked i386. One hundred times the first chip's speed."

"DAN SAYS I386, CLOCKED AT ONE HUNDRED TIMES THE FIRST CHIP SPEED.. I'LL ASK. Dan no Arm CPUs?"

"Arm? No idea what that is."

"SORRY, NO TO THAT TOO. OKAY! She says they'll send new chip designs over the following weeks.. One for you Mum, she asks can you set up a charity, call it The Angel Foundation. They'll have a load of technology for us to donate to firms in return for a share of the profits. The man that fell to Earth?"

Daniel nods, "Old classic."

"DAN SAYS OLD CLASSIC. George suggests we watch it. Either of you heard of program trading?"

"Only making illegal copies of expensive software."

"ILLEGAL COPIES OF SOFTWARE? .. Oh, she says it's programs working on the stock markets buying and selling shares.. NO, HEAD SHAKES MY END.. Mattie says David's wife Samantha will put something together for us. He'd remarried."

A second later Daniel gives her a thumbs up to say a bitstream was recording to disc. He steps over to Laura and whispers, not wanting to take Matilda's mind off the noise in her head. "I'll get the coffee on."


End file.
